Mr. Philip O'Leary:

I thank the Senator for her good wishes, which are appreciated. The Abhaile scheme was introduced in October 2016, so it is relatively new. The scheme is being co-ordinated with the Money Advice and Budgeting Service, MABS. The involvement of the Legal Aid Board is that if MABS decides that a person is entitled to legal advice, a voucher is issued which entitles the person to get legal advice from a private practitioner. I am not aware of the number of practitioners who have signed up to the scheme today, but that information will be furnished to the committee as necessary. Approximately 1,000 vouchers for legal advice have issued since the scheme opened and about 450 of the vouchers have been redeemed to date.

The Abhaile scheme also deals with personal insolvency matters. Under new legislation, there is now a facility to challenge a personal insolvency application if the lending institutions do not agree with the proposal. The method of doing that is an appeal to the Circuit Court. A number of legal aid certificates have been granted in respect of such appeals before the Circuit Court. The most recent figures I saw show that between 16 and 20 of those legal aid certificates had been issued.

I am also aware of four certificates having been issued for an appeal from the Circuit Court to the High Court on points of law. The third point on the Abhaile scheme is that a duty solicitor has now been put in place in the office of the repossession registrar and the courts in order that persons coming before the courts who are often unrepresented will be given the opportunity to receive some legal advice and directed towards the various schemes now available.

The Senator also asked me about the minimum contribution. Currently, it is €130. There are no plans to reduce it, but, as I said in my address, the question of eligibility for legal aid is being considered by the board. It was put in place in November and we have had one board meeting so far. There will be another tomorrow and on the agenda is the question of eligibility and putting proposals to the Minister in due course. On the waiver of contributions, a waiver scheme operates and is often applied in domestic violence cases. I have looked at the agenda for the meeting tomorrow and that issue will be before the board for consideration. I do not want to pre-empt its decision, but the matter will be given a sympathetic hearing.

The final question the Senator asked was about waiting times and the use of the private practitioner scheme. The board operates a number of private practitioner schemes. The one of particular interest is probably in respect of District Court matters, including domestic violence, custody and access. The scheme is utilised as best as possible within the budget to alleviate waiting lists. We are constrained in the use of the scheme, but in any given year approximately 5,000 cases are referred to private practitioners to try to alleviate waiting lists.