Ms Rose Wall:

Cost is a factor. While people are eligible for legal aid, once they get legal aid there is, as the Deputy said, a minimum fee to be paid. An important obstacle to legal aid at the moment is the means test. We have a means test where one cannot earn over €18,000 but after that one is allowed certain allowances. However, those allowances have not been visited in some time and are totally out of touch with the reality of the cost of living. For example, one is allowed an allowance of a maximum amount of €8,000 for rent or mortgage payments. If one rents in Dublin and is in receipt, for example, of a housing assistance payment, HAP, particularly a homeless HAP, one will be in excess of €8,000. HAP is treated as income under the means test.