Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if his attention has been drawn to the recently published report Access to Justice; A Report of the Legal Aid Task Force; his views on the concerns raised in the report regarding increased pressure placed on the civil legal aid scheme resulting in a denial of access to justice; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14449/13]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I wish to inform the Deputy that I welcome the Report of the Legal Aid Task Force and would like to commend the Task Force for their work in this very important area of public policy. There are a number of specific recommendations in the report about the services provided by the Legal Aid Board and I will address these in my reply.

Having regard to the significantly increased demand for services from the Legal Aid Board in recent years, it was decided to maintain the Board’s grant-in-aid for 2013 at the same level as last year. The Board, in common with all public service organisations, has to manage the delivery of their services in the most cost effective and efficient manner possible having regard to ongoing pressure on the public finances. Notwithstanding the pressures on resources, I have further supported the Board by approving exemptions from the moratorium to enable the organisation to recruit front-line staff for direct service delivery. The Public Appointments Service is currently running a solicitor recruitment competition for the Board from which appointments, both temporary and permanent, will be made in the coming months.

The Board has examined its current operating environment as well as the international experience of civil legal aid services. It has also considered and examined the possible evolution of future service delivery models in order to address increasing demand for services. This examination has led to the evolution of three central principles which will enable the organisation to deliver services in different and innovative ways that makes optimum use of the resources at the Board’s disposal. These principles, which are fully consistent with government policy in relation to reforming our public services, are:

- to move away from a “litigation first” outlook to the provision of services to a more robust emphasis on alternative dispute resolution;

- a much greater engagement with the use of IT resources to improve efficiency and throughput of cases (the Board has recently introduced a new legal case management system (EOS) which is designed to improve efficiency and case throughput in law centres while also providing better management information to the Board); and

- to manage risk and performance more effectively both organisation wide and locally building on existing arrangements and ensuring a greater emphasis on compliance with procedures for quality assuring service delivery.

The decision to transfer responsibility for the Family Mediation Service from the Family Support Agency to the Legal Aid Board has enabled the Board to take a more integrated approach to resolving family law disputes. In this connection, a review of the operation of the integrated family mediation initiative in Dolphin House in Dublin, involving the Board and the Courts Service, has resulted in a significant number of family law disputes being resolved through mediation. Such disputes would traditionally have been dealt with through litigation at greater cost to the state and often with a greater level of personal trauma for the parties involved. The Board has recently extended this approach to both Cork and Naas in cooperation with the Courts Service. I welcome the Board’s efforts in this regard as it is fully consistent with government policy to extend the scope of mediation generally as a more cost effective means of resolving disputes that might otherwise end up before the courts.

The Board is also in the processing of extending a ”triage service” across its law centre network which involves providing applicants with access to a solicitor for advice within four weeks of their application for legal services being accepted. A review of the operation of a pilot “triage service” in five locations during 2012 demonstrated that applicants were overwhelmingly satisfied with this particular service initiative. This was because they got early access to a solicitor for advice on their legal disputes that provided clarity about the options open to them and the process through which their disputes might be resolved.

In relation to some of the other specific recommendations in the report of the Task Force, the Board is examining the manner in which it uses private solicitors to assist with the provision of legal services with a view to ensuring that the benefits from their use are maximised within the resources available. In 2012, over 5,000 applicants for legal aid were referred to private practitioners, mainly for district court remedies. The Board has also made a proposal to my Department that no financial contribution should be payable by a person who is seeking legal services to defend proceedings on foot of the Child Care Act 1991. I am currently considering this specific matter in the context of an overall package of proposals from the Board for the revision of the financial eligibility provisions governing the granting of civil legal aid. I will also have regard to the views of the Task Force in reaching a decision on this matter in due course. Under the existing regulations, the Board already has in place provisions for waiving financial contributions where not to do so would cause undue hardship to the person seeking legal services. Accordingly, this particular provision can be applied in the meantime, at the Board’s discretion, to cases involving the defence of proceedings under the Child Care Act 1991.