Dáil debates

Wednesday, 9 December 2015

Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: From the Seanad (Resumed)

 

2:20 pm

Photo of Joan CollinsJoan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left) | Oireachtas source

I want to make a small contribution, although I was not part of the overall debate. The point has been made that the amendments do not cover the cost for ordinary people of accessing the courts, which is one of the key issues the troika instructed the Government to deal with. In 2013, I took a case against the Minister for Finance and was advised that a stenographer was required for the days we were sitting in court, and that the State would pay half the cost. The cost for the stenographer for four days was €11,194.80, approximately €3,000 per day. Such a cost is a major restriction on people taking cases they feel have a constitutional basis. We should examine it. I was asked to pay half the cost of the stenographer, €5,597, which is a lot of money to pay up front and restricts people who do not have money from challenging the courts.

A constituent of mine is raising an issue with the legislation. He found himself in a particular adverse situation through the courts. Earlier, Deputy Shatter mentioned citizens' trust and ability to find justice through the courts or, if they do not find justice in the courts, how it is dealt with. I support Deputy Mac Lochlainn's point on the need for a Bill to implement some sort of mediation and provide somebody who is professionally skilled and qualified to be able to assist people through adverse situations in which they find themselves. My constituent has raised the issue asking the Minister to take into account in the new Bill something he feels is not taken account of, namely, some abuse in the legal system. He feels ombudsmen and gardaí are not fit for the purpose of dealing with all the corruption that is part of the culture in the justice system, and he feels the public is aware of it. My constituent was a victim of insider dealing in the courts whereby a case was staged without being put on the day's list.

He attended the case with a barrister. I am not going to mention any names. A famous name in the courts was appointed for the court in an appeal that was then in the master's court. It was the master himself who asked my constituent to leave the courtroom. I remind the House that he was the appellant. My constituent left the courtroom thinking that all the scandal involved in the case was being put to his opponent - a court insider who never had to attend any of the previous Circuit Court or master's hearings. He feels that crucial decisions were hatched behind his client's back in the courtroom. He feels that the Courts Service official or registrar had to turn a blind eye and ear and that this entirely favoured his opponent and the attempted evictor. This is still going on today.

This is important because it relates to the question of how people access the courts. The judge in this case went on to the Supreme Court. Both the judge and the barrister are retired from the courts now. As a consequence of what happened, my constituent's client is facing the prospect of having his home, where he has lived for 70 years, taken from him. The Property Registration Authority has stonewalled the release of a document that is putting this man's residence of 70 years at risk. He has applied four times to see that document. I have made two such applications, but I have received no response whatsoever. The man in question feels that the document is a fraud because it is based on an obsolete out-of-time will that was made before the Succession Act came into force and has been struck down, in effect, by the option that gives the spouse one third of the estate. The claim that was made in the Circuit Court was blunted and not reflected in the 2003 hearing, of which no record exists. It is very strange that this all happened in a court, but there is no actual record of it.

My constituent finally found the DPP file when an assault was made on his house. There was a break-in. It was not handed over to the DPP. The gardaí were thwarted in their efforts to bring the case. My constituent feels there was a hand behind that action. My constituent finally found that the DPP file never arrived. He feels that all of this corruption reached a new high when his client agreed property tax terms before the deadline in 2013. Before he could pay, he was told that the relative in question had paid it in her own name as the registered owner. The sole purpose of this was to blunt the client's plea of adverse possession after 70 years in the house. At least half of that time was spent as the owner of the house. He thought he had pleaded his case successfully through the courts and the master's court at the time.

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