The Taoiseach has urged solicitors who have resigned from the Criminal Legal aid panel in an escalating row over fees to rethink and reflect on their decision and to resume representing people in court.
A new legal aid payments scheme came into effect a fortnight ago and brings in a flat fee payment per client.
Under the old system, a solicitor was paid for each court appearance by a single person, starting at €239.38 for the first appearance and then €59.86 for each subsequent hearing.
The new system replaces that with a €520 flat fee.
Solicitors at the Criminal Courts of Justice are no longer providing criminal defence services under the new scheme.
They are also sticking by a refusal to provide advice to suspects detained for questioning in garda stations.
“I am concerned as I think people should not be withdrawing their services.
“I would ask those who are to rethink and reflect and to do in my view what there is an obligation to do, and that’s represent people in court,” said Micheál Martin in the Dáil.
“The system did need reform. Without question it needed reform.
“There has been engagement – the minister and the department have engaged with the Law Society”, he added.
“What was going on was unacceptable in terms of multiple adjournments and the fee structure did need to be reviewed and reformed,” he added.
Mr Martin was responding to a question from Sinn Féin’s Justice Spokesperson Matt Carthy who asked the Taoiseach whether he was “concerned by what was happening in our courts as a result of the debacle over the handling of the criminal legal aid reform?”
Deputy Carthy said the number of resignations represented the majority of solicitors active on the panel last year.
“More importantly, we’ve now seen thousands of criminal cases adjourned.
“We’ve seen victims turning up to court and being turned away, waiting for justice.
“We’ve also seen people who should be in custody today being released on bail and at times we’ve seen remand numbers increase put pressure on our already stretched prison service,” the Cavan-Monaghan TD said.
He called on the Government to “sort this out”, saying the “chaos in the courts” could not continue over the summer months.
The Minister for Justice previously said he will not revoke the new legal aid fees system for solicitors and would not bow to political pressure on the issue, however he added that he reserved the right to make “tweaks” to it.
“Some solicitors think that if they put enough pressure on the system to disrupt cases, that this is going to result in political pressure on me, and I’m going to revoke the regulations. That’s not going to happen,” Jim O’Callaghan said.