Mr. Conor Dignam:

Absolutely. I referred to most of the landmark constitutional law cases or public interest cases - and this can only be on an anecdotal basis - which were in fact no foal, no fee cases brought by the most experienced and expert barristers. I was struck by what Deputy Connolly said in a question to one of the other witnesses, that is, that the Airey case was brought by the brave Ms Airey and her courageous legal team. That is what this boils down to: it required a brave litigant and a courageous legal team to bring a case on a no foal, no fee basis because there was not an adequate civil legal aid system to bring the case on the basis of State support. That is what is fundamentally inadequate about our access-to-justice principles and system.