Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State and her officials for coming before what is probably the last meeting of this select finance committee. Obviously, the function of the committee is to consider the Supplementary Estimates. If we had to approve them, I am sure they would be approved.

I wish to raise one issue with the Minister of State that she identified in her opening statement. It concerns Vote 5, which is the Supplementary Estimate for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. I note what she said about how a significant part of the Supplementary Estimate is due to fees to counsel, that is, to barristers practising in the criminal courts.

I welcome the fact that this Government has significantly increased the level of resources that have been put into the criminal courts. As the Minister of State mentioned, it is apparent that we used to have just five judges on the Central Criminal Court, but now we have gone up to 12. Much more work is happening there. The benefit of that is it speeds up the criminal justice process for persons who are accused or, more importantly, for the victims and their families, who want to see cases get on promptly.

One of the consequences of the increase in the amount and capacity of the Central Criminal Court is that is has spread the work more widely among barristers, which is a good thing. Previously, some of the work was concentrated on a small number of barristers. Now since there are 12 central criminal courts and, of course, there are circuit criminal courts, the work is spread much more broadly. It is not possible for one barrister to hold on to a lot of work.

That brings me to the point I wish to raise about counsel’s fees. I am a barrister but I do not practise in the criminal courts. As the Minister of State will be aware, as a result of and from the time of the financial crash, between 2008 and 2011, a cut of more than 28% was applied to the fees paid to criminal barristers. Fortunately, this Government has done a lot to restore some of those cuts. In budget 2024, the restoration process started, and I think there was a restoration of 10% announced in budget 2024 that came into effect from 1 January this year. In budget 2024, I think the Minister, Deputy McEntee, announced a further 8% restoration. However, it is still the case that fees paid to criminal barristers are approximately 10.5% below what they should be. I am conscious and I welcome that the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, earlier this year confirmed that all other FEMPI-era measures had been fully reversed and unwound. I am not asking the Minister of State and I am conscious she cannot give a commitment in respect of it. Does she think there is an awareness in Government that something probably needs to be done in respect of the ongoing, continuing cuts that were applied and implemented since 2008? I note in her presentation that fees to counsel are an important part of having an effective administration of justice. My concern is that if we do not, we start losing people from that area of the profession. I am not worried about the interests of barristers but it will damage the administration of justice because we will not have sufficient interest in that area of the law to prosecute cases.