Legal Aid Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-20 ============================================================ Patricia Stephenson (SD), Labour Panel I thank the Minister for coming in. We do not often get the appropriate line Minister so we are grateful for having him here. I raise the issue of civil legal aid and how the system is currently failing survivors of domestic violence. We know that legal aid for victims and survivors of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, DSGBV, is overstretched, under-resourced and not meeting demand. In 2024, the Free Legal Advice Centres's phone lines received a record high number of queries in relation to domestic violence. This is a clear indication of the growing, unmet legal need in this area. We have heard stark statements about the state of our civil legal aid scheme, which is in crisis and on the brink of collapse due to chronic underfunding and under-resourcing. The civil legal aid scheme is failing to meet that legal need. A core problem is the rigid and out-of-date means testing scheme. The means test is a barrier to accessing legal aid and is, therefore, a barrier to justice for survivors of domestic violence, as is the financial contribution requirement. Domestic violence survivors may need to make repeated applications for legal aid. That is repeated financial contributions, which puts a huge strain on them financially. It is crucial that we understand how financial abuse is often used as a factor in domestic violence cases, further restricting women's ability to access that legal aid. Some women may be deemed ineligible for legal aid because of joint assets, over which in reality they have no control. Access to free legal aid is vital in cases of domestic violence involving financial abuse, as victim-survivors may not have access to their own finances to pay for legal services. The income threshold for the scheme is woefully out of date, having not been updated since 2006. This greatly reduces the proportion of people who will qualify for legal aid. The threshold needs to be raised urgently to account for inflation. Many people in dire need, including domestic violence survivors, are effectively locked out of our legal aid system, as the threshold is 20 years out of date and does not reflect the cost of living in today's society. Both reports that arose from the independent review of the civil legal aid scheme last year identified the urgent need to raise the threshold and associated allowances, including that the accommodation allowance be deducted from the income assessment, to reflect the rising costs of accommodation. The minority report published under the legal aid review recommended that the income threshold be raised from the current figure of €18,000 to €30,000. Moreover, it called for the complete removal of the means test in cases of domestic violence. It has been a year since the Minister received the reports from the legal aid review. I ask him to provide an update on the progress to implement those recommendations, particularly pertaining to the raising of the financial eligibility threshold. It is vital that we ensure sufficient staffing of the Legal Aid Board and affiliated solicitors, as well as adequate training of the legal aid solicitors on violence against women. This was a key recommendation from the Council of Europe's group of experts responsible for monitoring Ireland's compliance with the Istanbul Convention on preventing violence against women. I note the very positive work being done under the zero tolerance strategy in regards to legal aid staff completing domestic violence awareness CPD training. That is really important. It is crucial that the training also includes an understanding of economic violence, namely, how perpetrators might be exploiting the lower threshold for assessing legal aid to drag the victim-survivor through endless court cycles of expensive litigation as a means of maintaining control in post-separation abuse cases. There is a lot of research to show that perpetrators use this as a tool time and again. Is the DSGBV training mandatory for all legal aid lawyers working for the Legal Aid Board? That would be great to hear. What action has been take on the implementation of the actions from the two reviews from last year? The minority report also emphasises the socioeconomic return on investment in legal aid. It adds that the Legal Aid Board must be sufficiently resourced to carry out the transformation envisaged by the review. It also includes that Legal Aid Board solicitors should be paid at the same rates as Civil Service lawyers, in bodies such as the Chief State Solicitor's office. The report further recommended a reorientation of civil legal aid services towards targeted, early and preventative services. It notes that disadvantaged individuals from marginalised communities are particularly vulnerable when it comes to domestic violence. They need early legal advice and advocacy where they are located in their communities. This particularly relates to people from rural backgrounds. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-05-20/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:58+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-05-20