Vol. 401 No. 2
31 Mr. Stagg asked the Minister for Justice if his attention has been drawn to the fact that applications for legal aid are not being processed due to the legal aid waiting lists with specific reference to the case of a person (details supplied) in County Kildare; the number of such applications which have been turned down due to the existence of waiting lists; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I am aware that from time to time the Legal Aid Board finds it necessary to restrict the services, under the civil legal aid scheme which it provides from law centres because of the need to clear backlogs of cases.
This is clearly an unsatisfactory state of affairs. However, I am hopeful that it should be possible to improve the situation as a result of the Government's decision to increase the board's grant-in-aid for this year to its highest ever level at £2.163 million, which has enabled the board to keep open four law centres which otherwise would have had to close and to take on a substantial number of staff at solicitor and administrative levels. Following that decision a number of administrative and solicitor vacancies have been filled and the board is in the process of recruiting solicitors to fill other vacancies.
In time, with an improvement of the financial position, I would hope that undue delays in providing services can be eliminated.
