Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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674. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of practitioners on the District Court Family Law panel in each county in each of the past five years, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25478/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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The Legal Aid Board is the statutory, independent body responsible for the provision of civil legal aid and advice to persons of modest means, in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Legal Aid Act 1995 (“the 1995 Act”) and the Civil Legal Aid Regulations 1996 to 2021.

Section 3(3) of the 1995 Act states that the Board shall, subject to the provisions of the Act, be independent in the exercise of its functions.

Civil legal aid and advice is provided primarily through a network of law centres by solicitors employed by the Board. The Board operates a total of 34 full-time law centres and dedicated units along with three part-time centres, and three specialist legal offices. The Board engages private solicitors to supplement the services provided by Board solicitors in certain areas of law on a case-by-case basis. These areas include District Court family law matters, Circuit Court judicial separation and divorce cases, international protection cases, legal advice and legal representation in matters arising under the Assisted Decision Making (Capacity) Act 2015, certain Coroners’ Inquests and cases arising under the Abhaile scheme.

The Legal Aid Board has indicated that records relating to the number of practitioners on the District Court Family Law panel are only available from January 2024 and is provided in the Tables below.

Table 1:

Table 2: