Minister will meet solicitors in 'coming days' over row

Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan has said he will meet the Law Society of Ireland in the "coming days" over the criminal legal aid dispute.

In a letter to President of the Law Society of Ireland Rosemarie Loftus, Mr O'Callaghan said he had instructed his officials to "organise a meeting in the coming days to hear your viewpoint and specific concerns".

He was replying to correspondence the society sent to him last Tuesday.

It comes after the minister appeared before the Oireachtas Committee on Justice and faced a grilling from members.

Mr O'Callaghan told the committee that he will engage with the Law Society of Ireland again.

"If there are issues, I can tweak, as I have done before, I will tweak them," he said.

However, he said the reforms themselves "are in the public interest, and in the best interest of court users".

He added: "I know that reform is difficult, but I have to look at what is in the best interest of the public and court users, not in the best interest of legal practitioners."

Mr O'Callaghan also stood over his comments that solicitors had deliberately targeted rape cases in their dispute over criminal legal aid.

During the hearing Fine Gael TD Barry Ward, a criminal barrister who has practiced on the free legal aid scheme, called on Mr O'Callaghan to withdraw comments made in his opening statement to the committee, where he suggested that cases involving allegations of rape were, in his words, "deliberately affected".

Mr Ward said the comments were highly emotive and "wrong".

"Every trial in the Central Criminal Court yesterday was a rape trial. There is no evidence to suggest that solicitors were deliberately targeting rape cases. I think it is very unfair and I think you should consider withdrawing your remark because you don't have a basis for it," he said.

Mr O'Callaghan replied: "I am not trying to antagonise solicitors, but I do have a responsibility to point out the information that is given to me by the Courts Service."

Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon also said the minister chose to attach himself "to the most horrific cases in order to win sympathy for an argument which you haven't won by any logic".

'Massive misstep'

Labour TD Alan Kelly accused the minister of "being tetchier than normal", but agreed that reforms to the legal aid system are necessary.

He said: "I honestly think from a negotiation point of view, to say what you said in relation to rape trials was a massive misstep.

"If you're trying to de-escalate a situation or negotiations - to say something like that was only throwing fuel on the fire."

Mr Kelly said to isolate cases in the one court and "put that out there as a line of argument to prove your point was beneath your role".

He called on the minister to reflect on his comment.

"I am not going to ask you to withdraw it because you won't," said Mr Kelly.

The committee's chairperson, Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy, accused the minster of looking for a "victory rather than an agreement".

He said he believes the minister's "entire approach to this issue is an expectation that solicitors will capitulate".

In response, Mr O'Callaghan said: "I am not looking for anyone to capitulate.

"But at the same time, what you seem to be suggesting to me is that I should just give in to the demands of the solicitors who are operating under the scheme."

Minister O'Callaghan said he respects the Law Society of Ireland and the work that is done by solicitors.

"I don't want anyone to have to capitulate," he said.

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'Do whatever it takes to bring this to an end'

Mr O'Callaghan's appearance before the committee concluded with Mr Carthy appealing to him on behalf of all of the committee members to bring the legal aid dispute to an end.

He said: "We want to see our courts operating effectively and we want to see this dispute brought to an end.

"And nobody has more power and influence than you, and we are imploring on you to do whatever it takes to bring this to an end."

Earlier, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he shares Mr O'Callaghan's regret that "yesterday, what appeared to be given a significant number of rape cases" were not heard.

He also said he did not believe yesterday's action by solicitors was necessary.

Speaking on his way into Cabinet, Mr Martin said he supports the minister on his reform of the court which has been "sought for a long time".

He said Mr O'Callaghan has an obligation to uphold law and "say it how he sees it".

The Taoiseach said he will not be intervening in the legal aid dispute.

"The minister will deal with this and I won't be intervening in the situation at all," he said.

Judges accused of aggravating dispute

Judges who have criticised solicitors for withdrawing services in certain criminal cases have been accused of aggravating the current dispute and underminig the legal profession.

Solicitor Ciarán Mulholland, Principal Solicitor at Mulholland Law, said it was "astounding that certain members of the judiciary, while understandably frustrated by the dysfunction within our criminal justice system, have chosen to direct their criticism towards the solicitors' profession".

His remarks followed comments by judges in the Central Criminal Court and the Circuit Criminal Court today and yesterday which were critical of some solicitors who had withdrawn their services in cases where accused people are in custody.

Mr Mulholland said such remarks were "deeply disappointing and risk undermining a profession that has
sustained the criminal justice system through generations of goodwill, often while operating at an economic loss".

"That goodwill has been steadily eroded, and the consequences for access to justice and the wider administration of justice cannot be ignored," he said.

Mr Mulholland has called for meaningful engagement between the minister and the solicitors’ profession.

He said that "continued inaction and misplaced criticism risk further undermining the administration of justice".

He added the "apparent lack of understanding and sympathy displayed by certain members of the
bench only serves to aggravate an already serious situation, particularly given the Law Society of Ireland's transparency regarding the ongoing industrial dispute and the extensive coverage it has received in both local and national media".

He said the legal profession was not the cause of the current crisis and should not be "made the scapegoat for systemic failures that require political leadership and meaningful reform".

Earlier, a solicitor working in criminal legal aid described the comments by the Minister for Justice as beneath the dignity of his office.

Eoghan O'Sullivan, who works for Powderly Solicitors in Dublin, said criminal defence solicitors from Dublin and right around the country withdrew all of their services from all courts yesterday.

This included cases of rape listed in the Central Criminal Court, as well as cases in the Circuit Criminal Court and the District Court.

The Central Criminal Court deals only with serious crimes such as murder and rape.

There were no murder cases on yesterday's list.

A number of other cases involving other alleged offences were also adjourned in the lower courts.

A majority of solicitors working in criminal legal aid across the country have been in dispute with Minister O'Callaghan since a new €520 flat-fee payment for legal aid cases was introduced in July.

The minister insists that legal aid continues to be granted by the courts; solicitors continue to provide representation, and defendants continue to receive legal services throughout the State.

Mr O'Sullivan said the minister's claim was not only "risible but wholly inaccurate", adding that it was a full withdrawal of services and there had been no deliberate targeting of rape cases.

He said it was very disappointing that the minister had cherrypicked rape cases to advance his own position.

He added that the other cases which did not proceed included robbery, arson, fraud, burglary, violent disorder, drugs offences, money laundering, custody cases and others.

Mr O'Sullivan said the dispute had been going on for three-and-a-half months and thousands of cases had been disrupted.

He claimed it would take years to clear the backlog.

Additional reporting Vivienne Traynor, Sandra Hurley, Órla O'Donnell, Mícheál Lehane