A deepening crisis is developing in the criminal justice system. More cases face delays due to the absence of solicitors. More solicitors are resigning from the criminal legal aid panel. This is a mess of the Government's own making. The justice Minister needs to intervene to end the crisis arising from the way in which he has introduced criminal legal aid fees' reforms. He should release the data on the reasons for adjournments, and he should engage urgently in dialogue with the Law Society to resolve this. The Minister said yesterday that he reserves the right to make, in his words, tweaks to his reforms. In one obvious tweak, he could look at section 32 of his SI 303 of 2026, which specifies that the fee will be payable upon the issuing of the final order by the court concerned. It might be possible to negotiate to change it to put in an interim payment method. There must be a sensible way to resolve this. The Taoiseach needs to get the justice Minister to engage to resolve this dispute before any more criminal cases are impacted-----

Sentiment score: -0.09

I am not disputing that.

Sentiment score: 0.31