I thank the Cathaoirleach for giving permission to raise this important matter of the staffing levels at the legal aid centre in Nenagh and at the associated centres in Thurles and Clonmel. As the Minister of State may be aware, the administrative centre for the Legal Aid Board for Tipperary is in Nenagh, but there are outreach centres and there are also clinics and offices in Thurles and Clonmel.
A very serious situation has arisen with the staffing levels for the legal aid service in the county and there are consequent implications for those on the waiting list. According to figures supplied by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, the staffing levels in the legal aid centres in December, and into January, were three solicitors and 3.5 support staff, and the waiting time for an appointment was nine months. The Minister of State would have to agree that this is an unacceptably long waiting time, particularly when compared to that in other parts of the country where the waiting time is more normally three to four months. Tipperary is outstanding in that regard in having, even in December, one of the longest waiting times for an appointment with the free legal aid service.
The situation has deteriorated since January with the loss of one solicitor and, as a result, the loss of a member of support staff. As notified to me via one of my Dáil colleagues last week by way of a written parliamentary question, the current position is that there are two solicitors and two support staff in the legal aid office in Nenagh and the waiting time for an appointment has now gone from nine to 11 months. This is an unacceptable and intolerable position. It is certainly intolerable for the staff involved, who I would imagine – without having discussed it with them – are being put under extraordinary stress, and for the people on the waiting list.
Only recently I received a woman into my clinic. I want to give this as an example – the Minister will be aware of the kind of case to which I refer. This situation could be replicated right across the country but I cite it as an example of the kind of difficulties faced when a person is relying on the legal aid service to sort out his or her affairs.
This woman's marriage has unfortunately broken up, due to psychiatric illness in the family, leaving her responsible for the mortgage. Because of a legal situation arising from the fact that her name is on the title deeds of a house, for which she now cannot afford to pay, the local authority is essentially saying that she is not qualified to apply for housing. We are dealing with that at another level. In fact, what she needs is legal separation. She wants to get a legal separation but she cannot afford a solicitor because of her position.
With two small children, this woman is unable to work. She herself is under severe stress and when I spoke to her last week she told me she had been waiting six months for an appointment with the Legal Aid Board. I advised her to go to another legal aid office because the waiting time in Limerick, for instance, is four months. I said to her that this was a really urgent matter and suggested that perhaps she needed to put herself on the waiting list for the Limerick service too.
This is the kind of situation with which we are faced. The local authority is telling me that it is in an impossible position. If a person's name is on the title deeds of a house and the person has not negotiated or finalised a legal separation, the local authority is in a very difficult position in dealing with the person's application for housing.
This woman is in very difficult circumstances. This is only one example of the kinds of problems people face. The Minister of State will be aware that at this stage family law cases have become the largest element of the work of the legal aid service.
I ask the Minister of State to explain why staffing in the Tipperary office has been allowed to fall to two solicitors and two support staff. I hope a commitment will be forthcoming that this problem will be rectified as soon as possible. I want to know why this is happening. Is it because of a cut in funds to the Legal Aid Board? If so, could the Minister of State please explain why this is happening and the justification for it? If there is such a cut, who made this decision, why was it made and are the implications being fully examined? It would appear to me that cuts such as this are hitting the most vulnerable in the community, the very people who cannot afford to go privately to a solicitor, who are dependent on the free legal aid service and who, as a result, are often left waiting often in legal limbo.
I should of course emphasise that the waiting time is for an appointment, not for a court hearing which, hopefully, is consequent on an appointment. Therefore it masks, in many ways, the full reality of this intolerable situation.