Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)

I agree this is a question of access to justice. Some people are being denied justice because they are just over the threshold and therefore cannot afford it. A woman has come to me whose daughter is dealing with an abusive ex-partner and is fighting for full custody. She is €50 per week over the current threshold and has therefore had to spend €45,000 on a custody case, which is horrendous.

I note the Minister mentioned the figure of €23,500, which obviously comes from the majority report reviewing the whole scheme. I point out to the Minister and ask him to consider the fact that there is a minority report that argues that figure is still not high enough and will continue to exclude people who require the civil legal aid scheme. I have not done the figures, but I presume if we were just to adjust the figure of €18,000 for inflation from 2006 we would end up with more than €23,500.

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