‘If the minister engages in a positive manner, we also will engage in a positive manner’

A dispute between criminal law solicitors and the Minister for Justice over the new criminal legal aid scheme has been causing widespread disruption since courts resumed after the summer break earlier this month.

The row, which centres on the introduction of a new flat fee of €520 for solicitors representing clients granted legal aid- regardless of the number of court appearances- has escalated in recent weeks and since 1st September, solicitors across the country are refusing to carry out any work under the legal aid scheme.

This means dozens of cases at each sitting of Trim District Court are being adjourned into October and November as no legal aid cases are currently being dealt with and with no resolution in sight, it is likely that more and more cases will be kicked down the road.

New figures from the Courts Service show the impact the dispute is having with a dramatic reduction in the number of criminal legal aid certificates being granted by the Meath District Court offices following the introduction of the new scheme in July.

In Trim, the number of certificates granted fell from 204 in July 2025 to 11 in July 2026. Nationally 702 criminal legal aid certificates were granted in July 2026, compared with 10,277 in July 2025, a 93 per cent reduction of certificates.

The Law Society has consistently said that reform of criminal legal aid is necessary and overdue, but that the new model does not adequately reflect the reality, complexity or duration of criminal cases.

It has identified two targeted changes which it believes would address the principal remaining concerns with the scheme: ensuring that separate and distinct criminal cases are treated separately where appropriate and providing an additional certificate where a case extends beyond ten court appearances.

Hugh Benedict Thornton, President of the Meath Solicitors’ Bar Association, said: “The figures provided by the Courts Service are deeply concerning and demonstrate the scale of the reduction in criminal legal aid certificates since the new scheme came into effect. As a direct result of the new scheme introduced by the Minister for Justice, the criminal justice system in Meath is under significant pressure.

“Access to legal representation is a fundamental part of ensuring that the criminal justice system operates fairly and effectively. Solicitors in Meath are seeing first-hand the impact that the new scheme is having on the provision of criminal legal aid, leaving many without access to justice.

“These figures should prompt an urgent review of how the scheme is operating in courts across the country. We would encourage the Minister and the Department of Justice to listen to the experience of practitioners on the ground and to take practical steps to ensure that access to justice is protected. The Law Society remains available to engage with the Minister and the Department of Justice on the announced review and on practical measures which could make the Scheme workable in the interim.”

Trim based solicitor Maurice Regan at the moment he is “pessimistic” about the prospect of a resolution saying Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan just won't engage.

“The Law Society wrote a letter to him recently, asking him to engage in mediation -that letter hasn't been responded to. The Taoiseach was asked in an interview the other day and he said he didn't agree with mediation and it should be direct engagement. We still have not heard anything from the Justice Minister.”

Mr Regan said since 1st September, no legal aid work is being carried out under the new scheme in local courts and anything that qualifies for legal aid is being put back.

“There was 20 pages of a list in Trim on Tuesday. There were 98 summonses and there were 139 charge sheet matters. The vast majority of them were all put back or in some circumstances, clients dealt with them on their own without legal representation and the court dealt with those but anything that qualified for legal aid had to go back. Private clients were looked after and dealt with but unfortunately anybody who had insufficient means to pay for their own defence, those cases have had to be put back.”

He argued that the flat fee in the new scheme means that in a case where there are a lot of adjournments, solicitors would end up working for nothing if it went beyond five court dates and that in most cases the adjournments are sought be the state.

Mr Regan referred to a recent case where the judge was critical of the Central Mental Hospital for not providing a medical report having been asked to provide an urgent report four times.

“In that case I was in court 11 times for it. Under the minister's new scheme, six of those attendances would be unpaid for. He [the minister] says the €520 flat fee is meant to cover five days in court, but the six days on top of the five would have been unpaid.”

“That is just unsustainable. I can't do that. I don't think any person would be happy to work for nothing, it may be the case that you have to do it an emergency or something unusual happens but it is a consistent thing in the legal aid system that these matters that go over the five dates in court, and generally the fault of the state.”

“In Meath we have very efficient court presenters and the files are sent to the DPP fairly expeditiously but then they have to wait for weeks at a time for the DPP to come back with instructions and directions.”

Mr Regan said that in drugs cases, currently there is a six month waiting period to get test results back and while that is ok if a person is on bail but if they are in custody, he said they have to be brought back to court every four weeks if they consent but if they don't they have to come back every two weeks.

“If you have someone in court every two weeks while waiting six months for a result from Forensic Science Ireland, that's 12 attendances at the very minimum before you get to decide to plead guilty or not guilty, whether it stays in district court or the circuit court. Under the new scheme, in that type of situation, none of those things will be paid for.”

He also says solicitors will start looking for strike outs after five appearances because that is what the minister is saying they should be doing and this could have serious unintended consequences.

“I don't want to work for nothing. I just want to be paid for the work I do, 99 per cent of my practice is criminal law and the solicitors that engage in this area of law, we are social workers, we are community welfare, we are psychiatrists, we are counsellors, we help people get into addiction counselling and a whole range of things that we do that we don't get paid for and we willingly do them because we want to get the best results for our clients but the things that are paid for, we want to be paid for promptly, on time and at a reasonable rate of remuneration.”

Mr Regan said if the Justice Minister had taken the time to look at how the system works, what the delays are and what the reasons for them are, and realised what solicitors actually do, it that would go a long way towards fixing this problem but he has to engage with them.

“Turning up for a meeting and listening is not engaging, you have to negotiate and to be able to negotiate there has to be give and take on both sides. If the minister engaged in a positive manner, we also will engage in a positive manner because all we want to do is get back to work.”