Vol. 403 No. 1
17 Mr. McCartan asked the Minister for Justice the steps he proposes to take to meet the many and detailed complaints against Ireland in the submissions of FLAC to the European Commission on Human Rights and the EC Commission in Brussels; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I am aware that FLAC have made submissions to both bodies named in the question. I will respond to those submissions directly to the bodies concerned if and when requested to do so by them.
I will say this however. Successive Ministers for Justice have stated that the present scheme would be developed when financial circumstances generally improved. I began that process last year because I was responsible for a significant increase in the grant-in-aid to the Legal Aid Board for their expenses for this year. The increase was the largest injection of taxpayers' money into the scheme since its establishment.
Furthermore, as promised by me during the course of a comprehensive debate on the scheme in this House on 20-21 February last, I have examined the position of the board in the light of the increased demand for its services due to the coming into effect of the 1989 Judicial Separation Act and these extra demands have been borne in mind in the course of the Government's deliberations on the framing of Estimates for the coming year.
Will the Minister accept that it was inevitable in time that FLAC or some other agency would bring the issue of the appalling state of our civil legal aid scheme back to the European Court and that with our greater commitment to the concept of Europe and its legislative processes the difficulty which FLAC and others have experienced in seeking to implement EC laws and directives would inevitably bring us into conflict with the European Commission? Is the Minister surprised that this initiative has been taken by FLAC on behalf of all those people who need an adequate service?
Obviously it is a matter for FLAC or any other organisation in relation to any part of Government administration to make their views known in any forum available to them. Regarding the work of the legal aid centres, generally I am committed to providing as much resources as the financial circumstances of the State allow. I gave last year the largest injection of taxpayers' money to the scheme since its establishment. We all want to see additional law centres and I am looking at that question. The need for such centres and the substantial associated cost has been considered by the Government in the light of other demands in the context of the 1991 Estimates. I will be making some statements on that matter when the Estimates are published. I intend in the next session to introduce legislation to put the legal aid centres on a statutory footing. These will be major advances.
I welcome the Minister's continued commitment and particularly the undertaking to introduce legislation to put the scheme on a statutory basis, which is long overdue. Would the Minister accept that it would be a source of great embarrassment to the country and to the Government should the applications before the European Court and elsewhere be allowed to progress a great distance? Would he agree that it would be in the best interests of all of us internationally and at home if the case made by FLAC was met head on? The formula "when finances improve" is not a ready device in answer to the charge that people are being deprived of fundamental rights because of the paucity of the service being provided.
It seems we shall not be able to dispose of the remaining questions if we go on like this.
It is my intention to give statutory footing to the legal aid centres. Last year the centres got the biggest injection of taxpayers' cash ever. I hope the same thing will arise in the Estimates this year and that I will be in a position to make further improvements in the scheme. Details will be announced at a later stage. Obviously I should like more resources to be available but they are not. As soon as I get a request from the bodies mentioned I will reply directly to them. Obviously I should prefer that this would not arise but it is a question of cutting our cloth according to measure.
