Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Question 269: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the average waiting times for a legal aid appointment in both criminal and civil cases. [12473/11]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The information requested by the Deputy concerning civil and criminal legal aid is set out below.

Civil Legal Aid

The Legal Aid Board is charged by statute with the provision of legal aid and advice in civil matters to persons of modest means. It is obliged to provide such services within the resources available to it. The Board's services are provided to clients through a network of thirty three law centres (including the Refugee Legal Service) located throughout the country. This network is complemented by the use of private solicitors as required. Persons seeking legal services do so by applying to any of its law centres.

Waiting Times

The Deputy should note that it is difficult to give average waiting time information such as that requested. Firstly, the Board prioritises certain types of case where it is considered that an immediate or near immediate service is required e.g. domestic violence cases, child abduction cases, and cases involving State intervention in relation to the welfare of children. About 15% of applications fall within this category. In addition, a significant number of cases involving representation before the District Court for family matters are effectively prioritised by being referred to private solicitors for the purpose of providing a service. Waiting times for matters that are not prioritised or referred to private solicitors vary from law centre to law centre and in each centre from month to month. In light of this, and in order to be of assistance, waiting times information is being provided on a centre by centre basis at certain points in time. The following table gives the waiting times (in months) as of 1 January 2010, 1 January 2011 and 1 May 2011.

Demand for the Board Services

The Deputy should note that in recent years the Board has experienced a substantial increase in demand for its services (other than for asylum matters). In 2007 approximately 10,200 applications for legal services were made. This figure increased to 17,200 in 2010, an increase of approximately 69%. This is at a time when the Board's resources are being constrained and the impact of the public service recruitment embargo is being experienced. The numbers of persons waiting for a first appointment with a solicitor were as follows on the dates referred to above:

Actions

The Board is very aware of the delays that a number of persons seeking its services are experiencing. The geographically dispersed nature of the legal aid service means that the scope for redeployment of staff resources is extremely limited, outside of the Dublin area and, to a lesser extent, in Cork and Galway. As a result, notwithstanding the efforts being made to reconfigure how the Board provides services and to deploy resources wherever possible to meet priority demands, there are a number of locations where there are acute service delivery problems. The Board has taken and is taking steps to improve its efficiency and effectiveness and to minimise the impact of the delays on the persons experiencing them. These steps include: Increasing substantially the use of private solicitors for the purpose of providing services in relation to certain family law matters; Providing a short half hour appointment with a solicitor for applicants who are likely to be waiting longer than four months for a substantive service; Developing and standardising many of its processes; and developing a new case management system for the purpose, inter alia, of enabling work to be done more efficiently.

Criminal Legal Aid

I wish to inform the Deputy that the Criminal Justice (Legal Aid) Act 1962 provides that free legal aid may be granted, in certain circumstances, for the defence of persons of insufficient means in criminal proceedings. Legal aid is granted in all Courts including the District, Circuit and higher Courts. Under the Act, the grant of legal aid entitles the applicant to the services of a solicitor and, in certain circumstances, up to two counsel, in the preparation and conduct of their defence or appeal. The assignment of lawyers or the granting of aid are matters for the Court and, as such, are handled by the judiciary. The Court must be satisfied that, by reason of the "gravity of the charge" or "exceptional circumstances", it is essential in the interests of justice that the applicant should have legal aid and the applicant for criminal legal aid must establish to the satisfaction of the Court that his/her means are insufficient to enable him/her to pay for legal representation him/herself. If the Court is so satisfied it will award criminal legal aid.

There are no appointments or waiting lists associated with this procedure.