Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Some of the figures quoted by Deputy Ó Cuív are terrifying. This is nothing new. As Dr. McDonagh was talking about the lived experience of the racism, I was particularly struck by the notion that Travellers should be deported, given that they were born here, live here and this is their home. Where the hell are people proposing to deport them to? That is a very disturbing statistic. When that is added to the rest of the systemic problems we are talking about, it is truly disturbing.

One of the matters I want to explore with FLAC in particular is civil legal aid. This is something I have been talking to the Chair of the Joint Committee on Justice about and it is one we need to take up in that committee. Civil legal aid is not fit for purpose. In a recent Supreme Court challenge on the Workplace Relations Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that the Workplace Relations Commission is administering justice in a limited way. It is allowed to do so under Article 37 but it is still administering justice and we need to expect the same standards of it as we would in any other aspect of the administration of justice.

These include ability to cross-examine, evidence under oath, transparency and all of these kinds of things. Is there a chance there for some strategic litigation on expanding civil legal aid, particularly given that the courts have been clear that part of the effective administration of justice is a right to access legal aid? If we are saying that the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, and all of these other quasi-judicial bodies should administer justice to the same quality, is there scope there? Perhaps this falls into what Deputy Ó Cuív said in that it may take three or four years but I would certainly be interested in FLAC's insight into that as a way to develop civil legal aid to help in these sorts of cases as well as in a more general sense.