Study suggests lack of legal representation for home-owners breaches EU rights

The vast majority of home repossession cases before the Irish courts involve home-owners who are not legally represented, according to a new study.

The Access to Justice and the European Central Bank study by Dr Padraic Kenna and solicitor Simon Kennedy at the Centre for Housing Law, Rights and Policy at NUI Galway raises concerns that the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is not being fully respected in Ireland.

The authors state: “The principles of access to a fair trial and access to legal aid are being denied to two-thirds of those who are facing loss of home through the actions of ECB directly supervised entities.”

The research was funded by the Open Society Foundations and will be launched at NUI Galway later today, The Irish Times reports.

It examined 2,396 home loan debtor cases before the Irish courts in December 2017 and January 2018, most (70 per cent) of which involved a home-owner with no legal representation. In seven per cent of cases, the home-owner acted as a lay litigant.