Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Just to take the last question first, as the Deputy may recall, we reduced the fees payable under the criminal legal aid scheme on two occasions since we have been in office. The effect of that was that considerable savings were made last year. The outturn for 2012, which is to be finally confirmed, was that the cost of the legal aid scheme fell to €50 million, representing a saving of some €6 million over the preceding year. I would stress that this is a tentative figure. I will have the definitive figure very shortly and will forward it to the Deputy then.

The reality is that under Irish Statute, our Constitution and the European Convention, people have a right to legal aid and a right to be represented in circumstances where they cannot afford to pay their own legal fees. It is inevitable that there are number of law firms and counsel who would earn substantial fees under the scheme because they are specialists in criminal law, are part of the panel system and because of the volume of people they represent.

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