An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-16
============================================================

Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

We need to be careful on all fronts in the sense that the Minister fully recognises the critical role played by the legal profession in the effective administration of criminal justice. There is no intention here to reduce the cost to the State of providing criminal legal aid. I will just point out that expenditure on criminal legal aid in the District Court has nearly doubled, from €19 million in 2015 to €37 million in 2024. The reform here is primarily aimed at improving efficiencies, speeding up case resolution - there is an issue if there are 29 appearances - and reducing unnecessary adjournments, while ensuring fair and sustainable remuneration for legal practitioners. There is a lot of merit in what the Minister is proposing. He met with the Bar Council on 27 May and the Law Society on 29 May, last week. The Department will continue to engage with all relevant stakeholders, including the Law Society and Bar Council, in advance of the reforms being introduced.

---

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/dail/2026-06-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:50+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-16