Laois TD says Minister for Justice set to increase new flat free legal aid fee
‘He’s not for budging’ Laois TD says the changes will happen on July 1
Minister forJustice Jim O’Callaghan is expected to increase the flat fee being offered to solicitors as a row over free legal aid payments continues.
The announcement of proposed legal aid fee changes has sparked protests from solicitors across the country and resulted in thousands of cases being adjourned at district court level.
Solicitors in Laois have been refusing to take legal aid cases with the exception of existing custody and juvenile cases.
The dispute centres around a change in legal aid fees which is due to come into place on July 1. It will see the current system of an initial fee of €240 and subsequent fees of €60 per appearance replaced with a flat fee of €455.
Solicitors in Portlaoise have expressed concerns that the payments won’t be made until the cases are finalised and they will be left waiting on money. They say that multiple adjournments regularly occur for reasons beyond their control. They also expressed concerns that they won’t be paid for defendants who abscond and are later arrested but take up legal aid in other jurisdictions.
READ ALSO: Solicitors withdraw services at Portlaoise District Court over proposed legal aid fee changes
A number of solicitors met with the three TDs in Laois earlier today to outline their concerns.
Fianna Fail TD Sean Fleming said he had met with the Minister for Justice following the meeting.
He believes a new flat fee is going to go ahead on July 1 but he said the Minister is planning to increase the payment.
“I was in Dublin since that meeting and I happened to meet Jim. He is not budging,” said Deputy Fleming. “Jim is saying he wants to improve the efficiency of the courts,” he explained.
“My understanding is it may be increased to €500 and it is up to them(solicitors) to deal with that,” said Dep Fleming.
Dep Fleming put it to the solicitors “that cases that are on free legal aid take far more appearances in court” than cases which don’t have legal aid. He said the local solicitors informed him that he wasn’t comparing like with like in terms of the offence types and number of offences. “They say this is not a valid comparison. The nature of the people who are getting legal aid are more complicated,” he stated.
“Jim O’Callaghan, I have spoken to him previously on it there and he said this is to speed up the efficiency of the court,” he said.
Fine Gael TD Willie Aird was at the meeting with the local solicitors. He was of the opinion that the matter should have gone to a vote but he said the Minister could approve the changes. He believed there had been discussions between a representative body for solicitors and the Department of Justice in relation to the fee changes.
Independent TD Brian Stanley said “there is a need for free legal aid, particularly for people who are genuinely in a situation where they can’t get a solicitor.”
“A bigger part of it is not to have cases adjourned on multiple occasions…cases go on for a long, long time before they are heard,” said Deputy Stanley.
He said a recent survey had shown district court cases in Ireland go on “way longer than the european average” and he said the system needed to be sped up.
Dep Stanley said the fees were a consequence of the system. “Our district courts in particular, our circuit courts are overburdened with cases and family law,” he said.
He said there needs to be “a twin track approach” because the issue has arisen “a consequence of the fact that we have a grindingly slow legal system”. He claimed cases in Ireland take three or four times as long to conclude as they do elsewhere in Europe.
Dep Stanley said he would raise the issue with the Minister for Justice and he believed the Minister should sit down with the representative body for solicitors.