Written answers
Wednesday, 9 May 2012
Department of Justice, Equality and Defence
Legal Aid Service
9:00 pm
Tom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent)
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Question 141: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the legal firms that were the ten highest earners for free legal aid services for each year in the ten year period 2002 to 2011; and the amount each firm was paid for each year. [23299/12]
Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I can inform the Deputy that the provision of legal aid falls within two separate categories, i.e criminal legal aid and civil legal aid. Details in respect of each category are as follows:
Criminal Legal Aid
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. 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.
While records and information on expenditure under the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme provide details of fees paid to individual solicitors, they do not provide separate details of the names of their particular firms, if any. The ten highest earning solicitors under the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme for the seven year period 2005 to 2011 (figures for earlier years are not readily available and the retrieval of relevant records would require a disproportionate use of resources) and the amount each solicitor was paid are as follows:
2011 â¬
Frank Buttimer 889,659
Yvonne Bambury 789,364
Michael Hanahoe 776,168
Cahir O'Higgins 762,510
John Feaheny 710,316
John Quinn 580,282
Edmund Burke 507,993
Aine Flynn 475,368
Kevin Tunney 462,926
Michael Staines 452,347
2010 â¬
Yvonne Bambury 920,529
Frank Buttimer 866,005
Michael Hanahoe 813,469
Cahir O'Higgins 796,778
Michael Staines 784,920
John Feaheny 752,727
John Quinn 714,034
Aine Flynn 482,329
Michael Hannon 476,455
Michael Kelleher 474,390
2009 â¬
Michael J. Staines 1,340,102
John Quinn 1,136,483
Yvonne Bambury 1,130,352
Cahir O'Higgins 1,127,727
Michael Hanahoe 1,053,518
Frank Buttimer 982,062
John Feaheny 858,151
Kevin Tunney 724,519
Michael Kelleher 606,972
Michael Hannon 572,633
2008 â¬
Michael J Staines 1,354,077
John Quinn 1,187,516
Yvonne Bambury 1,109,906
Frank Buttimer 945,760
Michael Hanahoe 925,496
John Feaheny 866,594
Cahir O'Higgins 669,084
Michael Hannon 642,831
Aine Flynn 620,922
Terence Hanahoe 562,355
2007 â¬
Michael J Staines 1,484,090
John Quinn 1,121,176
Yvonne Bambury 1,007,202
Michael Hanahoe 905,955
John Feaheny 717,928
Frank Buttimer 694,581
Aine Flynn 678,677
Michael Hannon 539,736
Terence Hanahoe 498,972
Michael Kelleher 476,945
2006 â¬
Michael J Staines 1,543,839
John Quinn 1,211,921
Michael Hanahoe 975,367
Aine Flynn 848,710
Yvonne Bambury 772,139
John Feaheny 736,314
Garrett Sheehan 592,621
Frank Buttimer 580,644
Michael Hannon 484,264
Diarmuid Kelleher 437,543 2005 â¬
Michael J Staines 1,373,558
Michael Hanahoe 841,943
John Quinn 830,007
Aine Flynn 815,680
Frank Buttimer 582,075
John Feaheny 547,585
Michael Hannon 547,407
Yvonne Bambury 545,789
Garrett Sheehan 542,807
Ted McCarthy 525,437
Civil Legal Aid
The Legal Aid Board (LAB) is the statutory body which provides legal aid and advice in civil law matters. All Board services are governed by the Civil Legal Aid Act 1995 and the Civil Legal Aid Regulations.
Again, the Deputy might wish to note that the relevant information in respect of civil legal aid is only readily available for the years 2007 to 2011 inclusive and that retrieval of earlier records would require a disproportionate use of resources. In the case of civil legal aid, records and information on expenditure under the Civil Legal Aid Scheme provide details of fees paid to both individual solicitors and to firms and in the case of the former details of their particular firms, if any, are not on record. The details are as follows:
2011 â¬
Doyle Fox and Associates 60,927
Kevin Tunney and Company 55,222
Carmody Moran 54,844
Eugene G. Smartt & Co 52,979
Sandra McAleer 52,943
Doyle Solicitors 47,825
Burns Nowlan Solrs 42,848
Sean Mulvihill & Co Solrs 36,779
James Watters & Co. 35,530
John A. Sinnott & Co 34,318
2010 â¬
Eugene G. Smartt & Co 95,981
Eamonn Bennett 63,141
James Watters & Co 62,000
Maura Hurley 52,084
Carmody Moran 47,774
Peter Doyle Solrs 47,766
Burns Nowlan Solrs 47,209
Margaret Horan & Co 45,884
Doyle Fox & Associates 44,442
Huggard Brennan & Murphy
Solrs 42,654
2009 â¬
James Watters & Co 123,606
Eugene G. Smartt & Co 87,079
Carroll, Kelly, O'Connor Solrs 73,259
Peter Doyle Solrs 64,594
Doyle Fox & Associates 63,338
Kevin Tunney & Co 59,100
Eamonn Bennett 49,178
John A. Sinnott & Co 41,556
S.T. Glazier & Co 41,028
Maura Hurley 40,765
2008 â¬
James Watters & Co 80,943
Eugene G. Smartt & Co 73,003
Maura Hurley 61,965
Margaret Horan & Co 59,345
Huggard, Brennan & Murphy
Solrs 50,656
John A. Sinnott & Co 45,963
Kevin Tunney & Co 31,614
Lynch & Partners 31,231
S.T. Glazier & Co 31,052
2007 â¬
James Watters & Co 82,266
Huggard, Brennan & Murphy
Solrs 64,768
Augustus Cullen Law 55,083
Eamonn Bennett 54,668
Margaret Horan & Co 53,258
Maura Hurley 52,650
Eugene G. Smartt & Co 48,763
Carol A. Hickey Solr 44,218
D. M. Burke & Co 31,881
Tom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent)
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Question 142: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the criteria to qualify for free legal aid; if he will provide in tabular form the total number of applications for the 10 years 2002 to 2011, on a county basis; the number of persons that qualified for free legal aid each year; the number refused each year; and the cost per year. [23300/12]
Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I wish to inform the Deputy that the provision of legal aid falls within two categories, i.e criminal legal aid and civil legal aid. The following is the position in respect of each category:
Criminal Legal Aid
Under the Criminal Justice (Legal Aid) Act 1962, the Courts, through the judiciary, are responsible for the granting of legal aid. An applicant for 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. The Court must also 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.
I am informed that the number of applications and details of cases in which legal aid is refused is not readily available and the necessary search of records would require a disproportionate use of resources. The expenditure for each of the past 10 years is set out in the table below along with the number of legal aid certificates granted by the District Court.
Year | Expenditure | Number of certificates Granted |
2002 | â¬28.880m | 27,241 |
2003 | â¬37.353m | 30,060 |
2004 | â¬34.140m | figure unavailable |
2005 | â¬40.208m | 36,423 |
2006 | â¬42.093m | 41,582 |
2007 | â¬46.365m | 46,620 |
2008 | â¬55.297m | 55,265 |
2009 | â¬60.338m | 55,664 |
2010 | â¬56.544m | 55,412 |
2011 | â¬56.116m | 54,092 |
Civil Legal Aid
The Legal Aid Board (LAB) is the independent statutory body which provides legal aid in civil cases. I should however point out that civil legal aid is not free and clients of the Board are required to pay a contribution to avail of legal services and may be liable to pay the Board's costs in certain cases. The criteria for determining if a person qualifies for civil legal aid are set out in the Civil Legal Aid Act, 1995, and accompanying Regulations. The two main criteria are the financial eligibility test and the merits test. In order to be financially eligible for legal services a person's disposable income cannot be over â¬18,000 and disposable capital cannot be over â¬320,000. The reckonable allowances to calculate disposable income and disposable capital are set out in the Regulations. The qualifying allowances are set out in detail on the Board's website, www.legalaidboard.ie.
In addition, the Act also specifies certain criteria to be met in respect of the merits and nature of the case. In brief, a person can only receive legal aid for a case that (s)he would be likely to pay for if (s)he had the means; the person must have grounds to institute/defend or be a party to the case; the person must have reasonable prospects of success in the case and the granting of legal aid must be reasonable in all of the circumstances of the case. In addition, certain types of cases are excluded under the Act. These merits criteria are set out in detail in Sections 24-28 of the Act, as amended.
Whilst I have made enquiries with the Board in respect of the statistical information requested, I am informed that it is not possible for the Board to provide all of the information sought in the format requested. Information which can be made available to the Deputy without placing an undue administrative burden on the Board is set out below. This includes the overall number of applications, the number of legal aid and advice cases handled in each year, the number of refusals and the cost to the Exchequer of providing the service. Applications on a county basis for 2010 and 2011 are also set out. The Deputy should note that this information does not include asylum cases.
In addition, I should point out to the Deputy that the Board's Annual Reports and Accounts are laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas each year and these reports contain a significant amount of information in respect of the services provided by the Board.
Civil Legal Aid 2002-2011
Applications | Legal Aid Cases | Legal Advice Cases | Refusals | Exchequer grant in aid (million) | |
2002 | n/a | 10,070 | 3,530 | 251 | â¬17.636 |
2003 | n/a | 9,439 | 3,504 | 219 | â¬18.389 |
2004 | 9,509 | 9,065 | 3,462 | 117 | â¬18.388 |
2005 | 9,153 | 8,896 | 3,336 | 125 | â¬21.362 |
2006 | 9,688 | 9,471 | 3,683 | 114 | â¬21.913 |
2007 | 10,164 | 9,390 | 4,525 | 198 | â¬24.288 |
2008 | 11,888 | 9,017 | 5,900 | 282 | â¬26.310 |
2009 | 14,073 | 9,032 | 7,138 | 245 | â¬26.310 |
2010 | 17,175 | 9,344 | 7,288 | 288 | â¬24.225 |
2011 | 18,657 | 9,492 | 8,333 | 316 | â¬24.125 |
Note: Legal aid and advice cases do not constitute new cases in each year, but the total number of cases dealt with. Refusals do not include those deemed financially ineligible.
Civil Legal Aid Applications by County 2010/11 (non-asylum)
2010 | 2011 | |
Dublin | ||
Blanchardstown | 246 | 298 |
Brunswick Street | 330 | 537 |
Clondalkin | 264 | 376 |
Finglas | 326 | 384 |
Gardiner Street | 563 | 767 |
Medical Negligence Unit | 80 | 72 |
District Court Centre | 2,205 | 2,064 |
Tallaght | 390 | 323 |
Cork | ||
Popes Quay | 1,000 | 1,063 |
South Mall | 1,198 | 1,274 |
Cavan | 233 | 280 |
Clare | 630 | 732 |
Donegal | 563 | 640 |
Galway | 735 | 851 |
Kerry | 584 | 610 |
Kildare | 1,005 | 946 |
Kilkenny | 653 | 790 |
Laois | 410 | 555 |
Limerick | 553 | 613 |
Longford | 310 | 358 |
Louth | 303 | 380 |
Mayo | 414 | 366 |
Meath | 437 | 456 |
Monaghan | 313 | 376 |
Offaly | 394 | 381 |
Sligo | 346 | 356 |
Tipperary | 568 | 477 |
Waterford | 494 | 562 |
Westmeath | 553 | 524 |
Wexford | 521 | 588 |
Wicklow | 554 | 658 |
Total | 17,175 | 18,657 |
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