The Minister for Justice and Equality, Charlie Flanagan TD, has today laid the Legal Aid Board Annual Report 2018 before the Houses of the Oireachtas.
Minister Flanagan said,
I welcome the Annual Report of the Legal Aid Board and would like to thank and acknowledge the Chairperson, Mr. Philip O’Leary, the members of the Board and the Chief Executive, Mr John McDaid and his staff for their dedicated work during the year.
The Minister continued:
The Legal Aid Board plays a pivotal role in society providing legal aid to those who cannot afford to retain a private solicitor and I am pleased that there has been continuous improvement regarding the number of persons waiting for legal services. 2018 is the fifth successive year where there has been a decrease in the numbers.
The Minister noted the ongoing demands on law centres which can lead to an increase in waiting times at specific centres. There were 1,754 persons waiting at the end of the (2018) year for legal services. Although a modest reduction on 2017, it is down from over 5,000 in 2013.
The Board continued to provide a prioritised service where it was considered that an immediate, or near immediate, service was required. In 2018 approximately 30% of first appointments were for prioritised matters. These included cases of domestic violence, child abduction, cases involving applications by the State to take children into care, and cases that had statutory time limits close to expiry.
The Legal Aid Board’s law centre network handled over 17,800 cases in 2018, an increase of over 600 on 2017. In addition, private solicitors are engaged by the Board to provide legal aid services to complement the service provided by law centres. In 2018, 10,197 cases were referred to private solicitors, an increase of 640 on 2017. Therefore, in total the Legal Aid Board provided access to justice for 28,000 people in 2018.
The Minister said,
Of particular note is the Board’s work on family mediation. Since the transfer of responsibility for mediation to the Board in 2011, it has sought to integrate the delivery of mediation and legal aid services. As a first step, the Board has pursued a strategy of co-locating the offices for the provision of legal aid services and mediation and, on 20 June this year I was happy to officially open the latest of these co-located offices in Portlaoise.
Mediation provides an avenue for separating couples to reach their own agreement on issues such as parenting arrangements, thereby reducing the number of such cases being pursued through the Courts. In 2018 a total of 2,282 new cases were dealt with by mediation, and there were 1,218 mediated agreements during the course of the year.
The Minister also welcomed the work of the Board on the Abhaile scheme, noting that 2018 marked the second full operational year of the Scheme which was launched in 2016. The Scheme provides financial and legal assistance for insolvent persons who are in danger of having their home repossessed.
Speaking on the allocation made to the Legal Aid board in Budget 2020, the Minister said,
Under difficult budgetary conditions this year, I was pleased to provide The Legal Aid Board with an allocation of €42.2 million for 2020, an increase of 3% on the 2019 allocation, which includes €1m to continue the Abhaile Scheme for mortgage arrears. Since it was set up in 2016 the Scheme has provided financial advice and negotiation support to over 12,000 households at risk of losing their homes.
While there was a significant reduction in the number of persons seeking legal consultations on foot of the Scheme (from 1,933 in 2017 down to 782 in 2018), the number of legal aid certificates granted to take proceedings to have proposed Personal Insolvency Applications approved by the Courts rose from 469 in 2017 to 625 in 2018.
While it is the Courts, through the judiciary, that are responsible for the granting of legal aid in criminal cases, the Legal Aid Board is currently responsible for the administration and management of three of the five criminal legal aid schemes. They are as follows:
- The Garda Station Legal Advice Revised Scheme
- The Legal Aid – Custody Issues Scheme
- The Criminal Assets Bureau Ad-hoc Legal Aid Scheme
In 2018 the Legal Aid Board processed 4,679 claims under these three schemes.