Written Answers. - Cork Free Legal Aid System.
Peter Barry
Ceist:
139
Mr. Barry
asked the
Minister for Justice
the number of cases in the Cork area that have been affected because of the shortage of funds in the free legal aid system; whether cases have had to be adjourned; and, if so, the number thereof and whether there is a possibility that some cases may not come to trial.
The background to the problem with regard to the grant of free legal aid to persons charged before the courts in Cork city was set out in considerable detail in response to Deputy Quill in the Adjournment Debate on 18 February 1992 (Official Report of 18 February 1992, Columns 2305 to 2311).
The disruption of the court system in Cork city in criminal cases is a direct consequence of action taken by solicitors in Cork, members of the Southern Law Association, who are refusing to represent persons charged with criminal offences who are entitled to legal aid. Their action was taken after they delivered what was in effect an ultimatum last September that they would withdraw from the operation of the criminal legal aid scheme within three weeks unless a scale of fees for legal aid cases in line with the fees they charge their private clients was introduced.
The actions of the Southern Law Association, in delivering their ultimatum and in withdrawing from the operation of the scheme, were taken without any claim for an increase in criminal legal aid fees having been submitted on their behalf by the Incorporated Law Society. The society is the representative body for all solicitors in the State and is the appropriate body for my Department to negotiate with on matters relating to the operation of the Criminal Justice (Legal Aid) Act, 1962 and regulations made under that Act in so far as solicitors are concerned. For obvious reasons it would be out of the question for my Department to negotiate on matters of this kind with a purely local section of the solicitors profession and bypass their national representative body.
On 18 February last the Law Society submitted a claim to my Department in which they sought a substantial increase in legal aid fees for solicitors in all parts of the State who operate the criminal legal aid scheme. The Law Society claim is currently being examined in my Department and is being processed with all possible expedition. Unfortunately the Cork solicitors are still persisting with their action.
With regard to the effect which the solicitors' action is having on court cases in the Cork area the position is as set out hereunder;
1. Cork District Court: Since the dispute commenced up to and including 30 March a total of 257 people charged with criminal offences before Cork District Court have been affected by the solicitors action; 255 of these 257 people have had their cases adjourned by the court for lack of a legal aid solicitor. With regard to the two people remaining, in the absence of legal aid, orders returning for trial were not made and the charges against them were struck-out. However, the State may still prosecute them in respect of the charges referred to.
2. Cork Circuit Court: A total of 14 people, each with a criminal appeal to the Cork Circuit Court, have been affected by the solicitors action. Eleven of these criminal appeals have been adjourned from the Hilary Term to the Easter Term because of the non-availability of a legal aid solicitor. The three remaining appeals were allowed by the trial judge because of the non-availability of legal aid to which the defendants would have been entitled.
