Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Criminal Justice (Legal Aid) Act, 1962, is the primary legislation covering the operation of the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme and gives effect to the Constitutional right that legal aid may be granted for the defence of people with insufficient means in criminal proceedings.

Furthermore, the European Convention on Human Rights provides that every person charged with a criminal offence is entitled to defend themselves in person, through legal assistance of their own choosing, or if they have insufficient means to pay for legal assistance to be given it free when the interests of justice so require.

The Deputy will appreciate that the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme must operate with due regard to these rights and that any unreasonable block on legal aid could give a convicted defendant an avenue for appeal or prohibition of the prosecution.

As the Deputy will be aware, under the current legislation the courts, through the judiciary, are responsible for the granting of legal aid. To be eligible for Criminal Legal Aid, an applicant must establish to the satisfaction of the court that their means are insufficient to enable the applicant to pay for legal representation themselves.

However, it is also the case that the court must be satisfied that by reason of the ‘gravity of the charge’ or ‘exceptional circumstances’, in the interests of justice it is essential that the applicant should have legal aid.

Work to modernise and improve the operation of the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme is currently under way. The General Scheme of the Criminal Legal Aid Bill was published in July 2023. The Justice Oireachtas Committee completed pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill and published its report in December 2023.