Written answers

Thursday, 23 June 2011

Department of Justice, Equality and Defence

Legal Aid Service

6:00 pm

Photo of Barry CowenBarry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Question 15: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the total budget of the Legal Aid Board in 2010; the costs of each individual centre in the country and the amount of money paid by the body to private practitioners during 2010. [16778/11]

Photo of Alan ShatterAlan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I can inform the Deputy that the Legal Aid Board is the statutory body which provides legal aid and advice in civil law matters. It also provides legal services to asylum seekers through the Refugee Legal Service. In 2010, the Legal Aid Board received total Exchequer funding of €32.192 million. This comprised a grant in aid of €24.225 million in respect of its civil legal aid operations as well as funding of €7.967 million to operate the Refugee Legal Service. The Board also generated its own income of €2.26 million, largely through contributions from clients towards the cost of the service and costs recovered, giving a total budget of just over €34.45 million.

In respect of the civil legal aid operations, which is the area of most interest to the Deputy as I understand it, legal services are provided from 29 law centres throughout the country and a small number of specialist units, with administrative offices in Cahirciveen and Dublin supporting these law centres. Given the fact that there are over 30 locations, I am including the costs attaching to each centre separately in Appendix 1.

The demand for the services provided by the Legal Aid Board has increased significantly in recent years. Applications for civil legal aid services, with the exception of asylum applications, increased from just over 10,000 in 2007 to 17,200 in 2010, which represents a 69% increase approximately. The past three years has seen a considerable increase in demand for the services of the Board and this coincides with the downturn in the economy. In the first five months of 2011 the demand for services increased by a further 22% on the same period last year indicating that the increase in demand shows no sign of abating. Apart from the sharp increase in applications, evidence internationally has pointed towards a greater need for access to legal services in areas such as family law, debt and employment during times of economic distress and Ireland appears no different in this regard. Inevitably, this has created huge pressures for our law centres and our capacity to deliver legal services within a reasonable period of time.

One effect of the increase in demand for the Board's services has been an increase in waiting times to access a Board solicitor for those clients whose case does not necessitate a priority service. One of the ways the Board attempts to manage demand for its services is through the use of its Private Practitioner Schemes, under which private solicitors handle cases for Legal Aid Board clients where the client receives a near immediate service. Total expenditure on Private Practitioners in civil legal aid cases was just over €2.9 million in 2010. This comprised over €2.2 million on the District Court Scheme and a further €700,000 on the Circuit Court scheme. Both schemes are operated on a fixed case fee basis and any expenditure on the schemes comes from within the Board's resources. I should also point out that a separate Private Practitioner Scheme is operated by the Refugee Legal Service and expenditure on this scheme in 2010 amounted to just over €490,000.

Law centreAmount
Dublin
Blanchardstown€725,706
Brunswick Street€1,140,488
Clondalkin€651,131
Finglas€862,096
Gardiner Street€1,225,335
Tallaght€996,889
George's Lane€256,633
Medical Negligence Unit€244,376
Cork
Popes Quay€1,137,986
South Mall€1,010,668
Athlone€641,996
Castlebar€501,649
Cavan€274,163
Dundalk€343,335
Ennis€559,838
Galway€1,094,843
Kilkenny€665,175
Letterkenny€634,404
Limerick€495,731
Longford€354,475
Monaghan€441,536
Navan€525,443
Nenagh€562,471
Newbridge€534,597
Portlaoise€452,248
Sligo€367,289
Tralee€564,058
Tullamore€395,427
Waterford€549,361
Wexford€462,130
Wicklow€540,445
RLS Dublin€6,265,306
RLS Cork€558,491
RLS Galway475,148

Notes:

1. This is the estimated cost per law centre of the civil law centres, including salaries, operating and legal costs.

2. The costs of administrative offices are not included. The total costs of the Dublin and Cahirciveen administrative offices were approximately €4.5M.

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