The justice, home affairs and migration minister told a major conference on Monday that reform was on its way, but said he was unable to set out a clear timeline for it.

The “Civil Legal Aid: From Review to Reform” conference was organised by FLAC in conjunction with Trinity College Dublin School of Law.

As well as the justice minister, the conference heard from Chief Justice Donal O’Donnell and Michael McGrath, the European commissioner for democracy, justice, the rule of law and consumer protection.

An independent review group established to carry out the first review of the civil legal aid scheme since its introduction in 1979 produced both majority and minority reports, published in July 2025.

Mr O’Callaghan told the conference: “As minister, I have no objection to the fact that I received two reports. In fact, I think it is a healthy sign of a review group that two reports were produced.”

He noted that both reports “pointed to several key areas for reform, such as the income threshold, allowances, and other financial aspects of the scheme”.

The minister said the review had recognised “that the current legal aid system would function effectively in the meantime” and that reforms “would need to be sequenced, and to work in parallel with other ongoing civil justice reforms”.

He also said the recommendations of the reports would have to be considered with “due regard” to Ireland’s first legal needs survey, the preliminary findings of which were published in November.

“I’ve asked officials of my Department to examine the recommendations of the review, particularly in light of these developments, and I’ll revert to government in due course with proposals to reform the civil legal aid fee,” he said.

Mr O’Callaghan concluded his address: “I know you will be watching closely to find out what it is that I’m going to bring forward reforms. I’m committed to doing so.

“I can’t give you a timeline in respect to doing it, but I think that the report produced by the minority and majority of reports produce are very good guidelines for me in terms of what I and government needs to do.”

FLAC’s chief executive, Eilis Barry, earlier this week warned that the civil legal aid system could be pushed “from a state of crisis to one of collapse” as soon as this year.