Cork Courthouse by K Galvin [CC BY-SA 3.0]

Written by president of the Southern Law Association, Jonathan Lynam, on behalf of members the letter states that with the criminal legal aid dispute now in its third month “the criminal courts have all but ground to a halt”.

Mr Lynam adds: “The current impasse is having a profound impact on the administration of justice and there needs to be an immediate intervention”.

Citing figures from the Courts Service the letter draws attention to the fall in legal aid certificates being issued by the Cork District Court office. Figures for Cork city for July 2025 show 579 legal aid certificates issued. In July 2026 just 18 legal aid certificates were issued. In Clonakilty the figure has fallen from 54 in July 2025 to just 1 in July 2026. In Mallow while 118 legal aid certificates were issued in July 2025 none were issued in July 2026.

National figures, the letter states, show a 93 per cent reduction.

Mr Lynham’s letter continues expressing concern that many of those who have left the criminal legal aid panel will not return to that area of practice. He also voices concerns that solicitors qualifying “have viewed the practice of criminal legal work as extremely difficult, demanding and non-remunerative work”. He cites by way of example that just 2.6 per cent of students on the Law Society Professional Practice course elected to study criminal law last year.

Solicitors have been withdrawing their services since June in opposition to the “one accused, one fee” model for criminal legal aid that was introduced by justice minister Jim O’Callaghan on 1 July. Under the new scheme solicitors will receive one fixed fee of €520 for representing a legally aided person before the District Court. Previously solicitors were paid €239.38 for a first appearance and €59.86 for each subsequent appearance.

Mr O’Callaghan introduced some changes to the scheme allowing the payment to be split with two thirds to be paid at the start of a case, but a letter from the president of the Law Society, Rosemaire Loftus, in August stated that two issues remained critical to resolving the dispute, complex cases and separate and distinct cases. The latter referring to cases where an accused is charged with separate offences, but they are listed before the court on the same day.

Mr Lynham refers to Ms Loftus’ letter and states that “regrettably the [justice] minister declined to adopt or engage with either of the two proposed solutions”.

Mr Lynham further states that: “This is a matter of public interest and should be resolved without further delay. I believe that if the above two items are resolved, either through direct constructive engagement or through mediation, criminal law practitioners generally will return to work in Courts in Cork and across the country.”

He calls on the government to “constructively respond” to the Law Society or alternatively to engage in the mediation that had been proposed. He further calls on Mr Martin, as local TD, to engage directly with the Southern Law Association on a local level extending the offer of a meeting with himself and two Cork solicitors experienced in criminal law “to discuss the technical issues which we feel could assist in agreeing a resolution to this critical situation.”