Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

I am also shocked, as are many others, by the scale of legal fees involved, which means that we have a justice system that is virtually unaffordable for most people in this country. To hire a junior and senior counsel for one day costs the best part of 12 air fares to London. People refer to the market rate but since when was the market allowed within an ass's roar of our learned friends in the legal profession? There are people here who are zealous about the free market and competition and it is high time that these forces were applied to the legal profession so that we can all have reasonable access to the law, rather than it being a stomping ground for millionaires and corporate interests.