Bar Council of Ireland [CC0.10]

On civil legal aid the Bar highlights the increasing complexity of work and the 29 per cent increase in the LSRA levy against a backdrop of fee structures that remain largely unchanged from the FEMPI period and have not kept pace with inflation.

The Bar calls for the implementation of the Independent Review Group’s recommendations set out in their Review of Civil Legal Aid and notes that Budget 2027 reflects the first meaningful opportunity to do so.

On criminal legal aid the Bar welcomes the 8 per cent fee restoration that took effect from 1 July, but notes that a 2.5 per cent increase remains outstanding from September 2008 and that, as with civil legal aid, inflation and rising practice costs have eroded the real value of criminal legal aid fees.

Concern is also expressed at the flat fee model for the District Court criminal legal aid cases and the potential impact on “practitioner participation and long-term system capacity”.  The submission notes that “flat-fee structures fail to reflect the complexity, duration and resource demands of individual cases”. This is a challenge that was identified by the Independent Review Group in relation to civil legal aid and the Bar notes that: “It would be counterintuitive to address those challenges in civil legal aid while simultaneously introducing a similar model within the criminal legal aid scheme without first fully assessing its likely impact.”

The Bar expresses further concerns that the reforms were developed without formal consultation with key stakeholders and that the evidence relied upon to support the changes “does not provide a sufficient basis for such a substantial reform of the criminal legal aid scheme”.

On institutional capacity in the justice system the Bar calls for investment in court support staff to complement judicial appointments made in recent years. It also raises the issue of the number of disputes that arise from decisions made by public bodies and regulators and how court capacity might benefit from better decision making in that area.

Finally, the Bar addresses judicial appointments and how the Standard Fund Threshold may act as a disincentive to some experienced practitioners considering judicial appointment later in their careers. The Bar calls on the government to introduce targeted measures to ensure that pension policy does not operate as a barrier to judicial recruitment.

Budget 2027 will be introduced by the government today.