Eilis Barry

In March, FLAC appeared before the Justice Committee and highlighted that the proposed legislation, as presently drafted, would radically limit access to judicial review and that it would have a disproportionately negative impact on ordinary people.

Across 45 recommendations, the Justice Committee has effectively called for the bill to be overhauled. The committee has adopted FLAC’s key recommendations, including in relation to the time limits for taking cases, the threshold for getting permission to take a case, access to appeals, the court’s discretion to grant judicial review, and the need to ensure that successful litigants are awarded their costs.

The committee’s report also calls for further consideration of the proposed legislation “as a whole”, for research “to ensure policy making in relation to judicial reviews is informed by data and information around the reason why judicial reviews are taken”, and for further consideration of submissions made by groups such as FLAC. They have highlighted “issue[s] with the extent to which the General Scheme was robustly considered before [it was] published [by the Department]”.

FLAC chief executive, Eilis Barry, said: “The Justice Committee’s report highlights the serious flaws with the General Scheme as well as the lack of data and evidence to support the proposals contained within it. It is quite clear that the Minister and his Department need to go back to the drawing board before proceeding with changes to judicial review.

“For over five years, FLAC has been calling for the Department to engage in consultation with stakeholders about changes to judicial review. The General Scheme was published before any such consultation took place and without any explanation of the policy rationale for the radical changes it proposes or the evidence basis for them. Consultation (in particular with the groups most likely to be impacted by changes to judicial review), research on the causes of and the need for judicial reviews, and data analysis are all needed to inform any changes in this area and to provide an evidence basis for any changes. The present Bill should be paused while that work is carried out.”