Vol. 406 No. 1
64 Mr. Bell asked the Minister for Justice if he will outline his plans for the extension of the scheme of civil legal aid and advice to cover cases before (1) the social welfare appeals office, (2) the Employment Appeals Tribunal and (3) consumer cases of less than £150, all of which areas are currently excluded from the scheme.
I have no such plans at present. I would direct the Deputy's attention to my earlier remarks on this subject in my statement of 20 February 1990 — Official Report, Volume 395, column 2529.
65 Mr. Bell asked the Minister for Justice whether he has satisfied himself that the scheme of civil legal aid and advice will be able to meet its demands during 1991.
The grant-in-aid payable to the Legal Aid Board for 1991 is close to £2.5 million. That is an increase of more than £300,000 over last year's allocation and of almost £0.9 million over the 1989 allocation. Last year a substantial number of solicitor posts were sanctioned for the board and most of their administrative vacancies were filled. In addition, four law centres which, up to then were temporarily funded, were put on a permanent basis of Exchequer funding. This year also the board will be opening additional full-time and part-time law centres.
