Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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123. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality her plans to reform the legal aid custody advice scheme, particularly with regard to any consideration being given to the fees associated with same. [2959/17]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Garda Station Legal Advice Scheme commenced on the 14 February 2001 and it has been administered by the Legal Aid Board since 1 October 2011, the Board having taken over this role from my Department.

It provides free legal advice to persons whose means are insufficient to enable them to pay for consultation while detained in Garda Stations under the provisions of –

- Section 30 of the Offences against the State Act 1939 (as amended)

- Section 4 the Criminal Justice Act 1984 (as amended)

- Section 2 of the Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act 1996 (as amended)

- Section 42 of the Criminal Justice Act 1999

- Section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act 2007 (as amended)

- Sections 16 and 17 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2010

- Certain extension hearings

Following a decision of the Director of Public Prosecutions in May 2014 to facilitate the attendance of solicitors at Garda detainee interviews in Garda Stations the Scheme was revised as recommended to provide for payments to be made to solicitors who attended such interviews. New provisions were created and the Legal Aid Board published a new Scheme Provisions and Guidance Document in August 2014, which incorporated new payment headings and processes to operate the Revised Scheme.

An undertaking was given by my Department that a full review of the Scheme would be conducted when it had been in operation for a reasonable period of time to allow for adequate data and statistics to be gathered. At the last meeting of the Criminal Legal Aid Oversight Committee representatives of the Criminal Law Committee of the Law Society of Ireland attended in order to present their views on how the revised Scheme is operating. A full review of the Scheme is currently underway. On completion of this review the findings will be the subject of further discussions with the Law Society in advance of any proposed reform.