Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Has the Minister of State no concerns about what he is proposing in terms of how this might affect the number of people who seek leave for judicial review? I am not saying the current system is perfect, but one of the issues around the current system, which I have seen myself, is that it allows for representatives to approach people for legal representation on the basis of a no foal, no fee basis. That creates a certain threshold. It means that when approaches are made on that basis, people are often told there is not a case or that it is not strong enough, or the case will not be taken and they will be advised not to proceed or whatever. That creates a certain sifting process and a certain threshold. Is there not then a danger with this whereby we have that system in place but we should have standard access to a legal representation fees scheme so that kind of threshold is removed and no longer there?