Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation Dail Éireann — 2026-07-09 ============================================================ Peter Burke (FG), Longford-Westmeath I am very much aware of how important solicitors are to our criminal justice system and our constitutional right to representation, which is the undercurrent of any constitutional democracy. Every Government has to reform, however, and it is key that in working with the Minister for justice and having dialogue with the parties concerned, we get an agreement here. The Government has to be very clear. If we look at the data over the last number of years, there has been a 115% increase in fees in the criminal justice system, yet the number of cases has reduced. We have to tackle the issues with reform in that regard. I am sure the Deputy would support that when he sees data like that. Critically, we have countered the current offer----- --- 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/2026-07-09/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:07+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-07-09