The petition, which represents the largest ever coalition for civil legal aid reform in Ireland, was coordinated by Free Legal Advice Centres (FLAC). It is signed by 60 NGOs, Trade Unions, academics and advocates working in areas including housing and homelessness, domestic violence, disability rights, Traveller and Roma rights, migrant and refugee rights, anti-racism, LGBTQIA+ rights, and environmental rights.

The civil legal aid system is in crisis and in danger of collapse. It has a wholly inadequate and unfair means test which has not been reformed since 2006.

There are legal aid ‘black spots’ in Dublin and around the country - where applicants have to wait for up to 64 weeks for a first appointment with a solicitor.

The Legal Aid Board has difficulties in hiring and retaining staff because Legal Aid Board solicitors are paid less than solicitors in other areas of the civil and public services.

There has been an exodus from its private practitioner scheme due to the low levels of pay, which contributes to the legal aid black spots. It also has problems in paying for essential reports such as vital child welfare reports.

The legal aid system cannot meet the needs of disadvantaged communities. It cannot provide basic legal information to people and communities about their rights, either in a general or targeted way. It cannot provide legal aid in discrimination or employment cases, or in Social Welfare Appeals and cases heard by the Residential Tenancies Board.

The review of the civil legal aid system was completed in 2025. Its minority report provides the blueprint for reform, which is doable, practical and cost effective.

Speaking in advance of the petition’s launch, Eilis Barry, FLAC’s chief executive, commented: “Civil legal aid has to be treated as a vital essential public service. The Legal Aid Board desperately needs funding to operate a fair means tests, to be able to hire and retain staff, pay for vital reports, and to get rid of the waiting lists and legal aid blackspots. We welcome the Minister for Justice’s commitment to increased funding for legal aid in the next budget. It should be borne in mind that the Legal Aid Board currently receives significantly less on an annual basis than the horse and greyhound racing industries. How can that be possibly justified in terms of a vital public service?

“Funding, while absolutely essential and overdue, is not enough. The diverse list of signatories to today’s petition shows the huge demand for reform of our legal aid system.

“It is vital that the Legal Aid Board is transformed for the first time into a fit for purpose system which brings services to the most disadvantaged communities. This requires a complete reorientation of civil legal aid services with an emphasis on general and targeted education and information services and targeted and community law centres - so that disadvantaged individuals and communities will have access to legal information, advice, advocacy and legal aid in relation to their most basic rights as early as possible.

“The Minister should urgently outline his reform and implementation plans and establish a reform implementation group as a matter of urgency.”

Shane O’Curry, director of the Irish Network Against Racism (INAR), commented: “INAR and its members are encountering very high and increasing levels of racism in Ireland. Despite this, victims of discrimination have no access to legal aid for complaints under equality law heard by the WRC.

“The Legal Aid Board has no power or function to provide minority ethnic or migrant communities with information about their rights or how to respond to experiences of discrimination. INAR often has nowhere to refer victims of discrimination who seek our support and who need legal assistance. It is vitally necessary that legal aid is made available in discrimination cases and that the Legal Aid Board establishes a targeted services for minority ethnic and migrant communities.”

Sarah Benson, CEO of Women’s Aid, commented: “Every day, Women’s Aid stands alongside women in the busiest family law court in the country. And every day, we see the toll of an under-resourced Civil Legal Aid system on some of the most vulnerable people who pass through it: women who have been subjected to domestic violence.

“Lengthy delays. Limited access to representation. A means test threshold so outdated it locks many out entirely. Together, these failures compound into what many survivors describe as “secondary victimisation” — a system that re-traumatises the very people it’s meant to protect.

£The problems are well documented. The solutions are already known. What’s missing is action. Government must move now to relieve an overburdened system and secure real access to justice for those most at risk.”

Joe O’Brien, CEO of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, commented: “Civil legal aid is fundamental to ensuring access to justice for people involved in complex and sensitive legal proceedings. Financial circumstances cannot be allowed to prevent access to our justice system. Everyone should be able to access legal representation and a fair hearing before the courts, regardless of their means. Yet for many, legal assistance is increasingly out of reach.

“One year on from the publication of the Independent Review Group’s Review of Civil Legal Aid, the Minister for Justice needs to act on the Group’s detailed recommendations and begin establishing a fit-for-purpose system of public legal assistance which can meet the needs of the most disadvantaged.”