{"id":18420,"date":"2026-06-23T14:52:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T13:52:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/?p=18420"},"modified":"2026-06-23T14:52:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T13:52:44","slug":"justice-minister-must-publish-report-on-criminal-legal-aid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/justice-minister-must-publish-report-on-criminal-legal-aid\/","title":{"rendered":"Justice Minister must publish report on criminal legal aid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>Criminal legal aid is the glue that holds our justice system together \u2013 and the Minister seems determined to destroy it<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The Justice Minister must release the report he is using as a pretext to take a sledgehammer to the criminal legal aid scheme, according to Social Democrats justice spokesperson Gary Gannon.<\/p>\n<p>Deputy Gannon said:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCriminal courts around the country are now mired in gridlock because of the Justice Minister\u2019s botched plans to reform legal aid.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Minister\u2019s determination to bulldoze through a flat fee, which risks making the criminal legal aid scheme unviable, has resulted in hundreds of criminal legal aid solicitors withdrawing their services.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis means that not only can new cases not go ahead, but that those arrested and facing the prospect of serious charges may be unable to speak to a solicitor in Garda stations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAn internal report, that the Minister has cited when trying to justify introducing a flat fee, has not yet been published. In fact, the Minister seems determined not to publish it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDespite this, I have received a copy of it \u2013 and it is clear why the Minister wants to keep it under wraps.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is no evidence in the report that multiple adjournments in cases are caused by solicitors. In fact, the report was unable to analyse the reasons that adjournments are granted because that information is not recorded by courts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, anyone who attends a District Court will immediately see that the State is usually to blame for adjournments. These can happen when Garda\u00ed are unable to attend court, books of evidence are not ready, or court lists are too long so cases are not reached.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe report also notes that a \u2018statement of means\u2019, to test a defendant\u2019s eligibility for legal aid, is not always filled in and handed into the court. But it is the responsibility of judges to request and sign off on these documents \u2013 so why isn\u2019t an instruction being given to the judiciary to do that?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnother anomaly in the report is that the flat fee it proposes is \u20ac582. However, the Minister has instead decided to introduce a lower fee of \u20ac455 \u2013 without telling anyone how he arrived at this figure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCriminal legal aid is the glue that holds our justice system together \u2013 and the Minister seems determined to destroy it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Minister has made a mess of this whole process and now needs to come clean.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He should publish the report he has repeatedly cited, explain how on earth it supports what he is doing and reveal whether any other internal analysis or reviews have been conducted that support his plans.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Criminal legal aid is the glue that holds our justice system together \u2013 and the Minister seems determined to destroy it The Justice Minister must release the report he is using as a pretext to take a sledgehammer to the criminal legal aid scheme, according to Social Democrats justice spokesperson Gary Gannon. Deputy Gannon said: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11220,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[316,411,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gary-gannon","category-justice","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Justice Minister must publish report on criminal legal aid - Social Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/justice-minister-must-publish-report-on-criminal-legal-aid\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ga_IE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Justice Minister must publish report on criminal legal aid - Social Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Criminal legal aid is the glue that holds our justice system together \u2013 and the Minister seems determined to destroy it The Justice Minister must release the report he is using as a pretext to take a sledgehammer to the criminal legal aid scheme, according to Social Democrats justice spokesperson Gary Gannon. 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