I propose to take Questions Nos. 482 to 484, inclusive, together.
The Criminal Justice (Legal Aid) Act, 1962, which is the primary legislation covering the operation of the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme, provides that free legal aid may be granted, in certain circumstances, for the defence of persons of insufficient means in criminal proceedings.
Under the Scheme, the courts, through the judiciary, are responsible for the granting of legal aid. An applicant for legal aid must establish to the satisfaction of the court that their means are insufficient to enable them to pay for legal aid themselves. The 1962 Act specifies that the court must also be satisfied that, by reason of the "gravity of the charge" or "exceptional circumstances", it is essential in the interests of justice that the applicant should have legal aid.
The provision of criminal legal aid in circumstances where a person is unable to fund their own criminal defence has been established as a Constitutional right in Irish law. There is no limit to the number of times that a person can be granted legal aid under the Scheme. Whether or not an applicant has received legal aid previously and / or has previous convictions is not considered in determining eligibility for legal aid.
It is not possible to provide the data on the cost of legal aid by county as the system is largely paper based and figures are not kept in such a manner that this data can be retrieved. As legal aid data is also not captured by offender neither is it possible to provide data on the costs per offender.
The costs for the main Criminal Legal Aid Scheme for each of the years 2016 to 2021 (to end August) was as follows:
Year
|
Expenditure
|
2016
|
€52.9 million
|
2017
|
€58.1 million
|
2018
|
€64.8 million
|
2019
|
€65.1 million
|
2020
|
€62.2 million
|
2021 (to end August)
|
€46.0 million
|
Payments to legal practitioners for the period 2016 – 2020 are as follows:
|
2016
|
2017
|
2018
|
2019
|
2020
|
Solicitors
|
29.3M
|
32.2M
|
32.8M
|
34.4M
|
34.2M
|
Counsel
|
19.8M
|
21.5M
|
24.4M
|
23.1M
|
23.3M
|