Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The Legal Aid Board is a statutory, independent body in accordance with the Civil Legal Aid Act, 1995. The matters raised by the Deputy are a matter for the Board. However, in order to be helpful to the Deputy I have had enquiries made with the Board.

The past three or four years has seen a considerable increase in demand to the Board for legal services and this coincides with the downturn in the economy. In 2007, just over 10,164 persons sought legal services from the Board in relation to general civil (non asylum) matters. This figure increased to 17,175 in 2010 and I am informed that the number of applicants in the first six months of this year was almost the same as the total number of applicants in 2007. Inevitably, this has created huge pressures for the Board's law centres and its capacity to deliver legal services within a reasonable period of time. As of 1 September 2011 the waiting time in 17 of the Board's 29 law centres was greater than four months. In six of those centres the waiting time was greater than six months. As of 1 September 2011 there were just under 4,500 persons waiting for a first appointment with a solicitor. This compares to 3,153 on 1 January 2011, 2,335 on 1 January 2010 and 1,681 on 1 January 2009.

The Board is committed to ensuring that applicants for legal services receive a substantive appointment with a solicitor within a maximum period of four months. This is consistent with the view expressed by the High Court in the O'Donoghue case. This has been difficult to achieve in a number of the Board's law centres recently. Certain types of case are deemed by their nature to merit the provision of an immediate or near immediate service. Priority cases include those where there are allegations of violence, child custody matters and where statutory deadlines are fast approaching when clients make their first contact with law centres. These comprise some 15% of all applications to law centres. A considerable number of other applications are referred speedily to private practitioners. Thus, up to 40% of all cases receive a very speedy service. In addition, because the Refugee Legal Service operates to strict statutory deadlines every asylum case processed by the Board is a "priority" case by reference to the speed of response from the organisation.

I wish to inform the Deputy that waiting times in each law centre as of 31 December can be found in the Board's annual reports. The most recent published report is for 2009. Waiting times fluctuate depending on demand and the capacity of the law centre or board to offer appointments to new clients at a particular point in time. Waiting times in each law centre as of 31 December can be found in the Board's annual reports. The most recent published report is for 2009.

The following table shows details of the number of persons who are waiting for a first appointment with a solicitor at each of its law centres as of 1 September 2011. The table also, shows the waiting times for each law centre as of 31 December 2010 and 31 August 2011.

The 2009 annual report indicates that, of the new clients seen in that year 49% sought services in relation to general family law matters including maintenance, custody, access, domestic violence etc, 19% sought legal services in relation to separation / divorce matters, 4% sought legal services where there was a risk of children being taken into State care, 17% sought legal services in relation to asylum and the remaining 11% sought legal services in relation to general civil matters.

The Board has taken a range of measures with a view to addressing the increasing demand for services in a resource constrained environment. These include:

· Increasing the number of cases referred to private solicitors for the purpose of providing a service.

· An advice-only service which facilitates an earlier, brief, meeting with a solicitor where applicants are likely to have to wait in excess of four months for a substantive appointment.

· An integration of the delivery of all services with a view to ensuring the most effective deployment of resources.

· The recent introduction of a pilot integrated mediation initiative in Dublin involving the Board co-locating and co-operating with the Family Mediation Service and the Courts Service. The purpose of the initiative is to offer applicants for legal services alternatives to litigation in the Courts as a better (and from the State's point of view) a more cost-effective means of resolving family law disputes.

· The creation of specialist units for medical negligence and child care services.

· The current development of a new legal case management system that is likely to improve the efficiency of service delivery, the management of risk in the organisation and provide for on-line applications.

The Board has also made use of a very limited exemption from the moratorium in relation to a small number of temporary front-line service delivery positions.

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I wish to inform the Deputy that the Legal Aid Board provides legal aid and advice in civil matters and is a body that is independent from the Minister for Justice and Equality by statute. I am informed that the amount spent on civil legal aid in each year is published in the Legal Aid Board's annual reports, which are laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas and are available to the Deputy in the Dáil library. The 2010 annual report, which is due to be published shortly, shows that the Board received a grant in aid of €24.225 million towards the provision of civil legal aid in 2010, along with funding of €7.967 million for the provision of legal aid in asylum matters. The remainder of the Board's operating expenditure comes from client contributions and costs recovered, which amounted to €1.766 million in total in 2010.

The following table indicates the number of new clients seen in each of the years requested in non-asylum civil legal aid cases, whether by the Board's own solicitors or those engaged on its Private Practitioner panels.

I further wish to inform the Deputy that for criminal legal aid, expenditure in each of the years 2006 to 2011 is as set out in the following table. I am informed that information regarding the number of persons to whom criminal legal aid was granted is not readily available and would necessitate a disproportionate expenditure of staff time and resources to provide. However, to be helpful to the Deputy, the number of certificates granted by the courts in each of the years in question is included.

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The Legal Aid Board is a statutory, independent body in accordance with the Civil Legal Aid Act, 1995. The matters raised by the Deputy are a matter for the Board. However, in order to be helpful to the Deputy I have had enquiries made with the Board.

I am informed that the Legal Aid Board does not prepare on an ongoing basis, detailed breakdowns on a county by county basis of the types of civil cases being handled by the law centres. I am further advised by the Board that, as this information is not readily available, it would necessitate a disproportionate expenditure of staff time and resources to provide. However, to be helpful to the Deputy I would draw her attention to the fact that the Board's annual reports give information in relation to the different types of cases that the Board deals with. The most recently published annual report is the 2009 report however the 2010 report will be published shortly. It is clear from these Reports that in the Board's experience the types of problems presenting at different law centres are very similar, save that certain work presents in Dublin, because the Superior Courts are, by and large, based there.

Under the Government's value for money and policy review initiative, the Board has recently been the subject of a review conducted by my Department in co-operation with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. The review undertook a level of analysis of the different types of cases in the different law centres. The review is completed and is currently under consideration in my Department. It will be published in due course.