Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

For all the recommendations and the fact we need a whole overview of the civil legal aid scheme, two things need to be addressed, namely, income thresholds and fees. I do not believe that even the income thresholds suggested in the majority report are going to be sufficient to provide for access to the justice that I think the Minister will agree is integral. We need to get those two things sorted very quickly. While there has been no movement on that side, there is potentially a lot of additional pressure coming. I do not know whether the Minister followed the pre-legislative scrutiny discussions but people who work in this area have highlighted the burden that will be placed on them by the international protection Bill. Additional work is going to be put on the civil legal aid process. The Minister is adding to the pressures but not providing the solutions. What does the Minister intend to do to address the concerns around the international protection Bill? Crucially, when are we going to see the income thresholds and fees addressed?

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