The Minister for justice, as part of his long-running campaign for the Fianna Fáil leadership, is in the process of critically undermining our system of criminal justice. He has introduced a new fee structure for District Court criminal legal aid without proper engagement or consultation with the practitioners involved. The Minister is asking criminal law solicitors to run entire cases for the same amount that he would have charged for one hour of his own time as a commercial law senior counsel. The Minister now refuses to publish the underlying data being used to justify the move to a flat fee. If the evidence is as the Minister says, why will he not publish it? I would have thought he would be familiar with the concept of discovery, whereby the other side in a case can test the evidence being relied on. Solicitors are resigning en masse across the country from legal aid panels. It is awful to see. Will the Tánaiste intervene? Is Fine Gael happy to see criminal prosecutions being put at risk? Will he ensure there is a pause to allow for engagement and consultation? Will he ensure the underlying data informing the Department’s report is published?

Sentiment score: -0.04