Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-17
============================================================

Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

I disagree with the Deputy. I think we have a strong Minister for justice who is making sensible decisions. Some people will perhaps not like it because they liked the old system. We should not be having multiplicities of hearings. That is not tenable or sustainable. There is going to be no reduction in the cost to the State of providing criminal legal aid because of the reform. The Minister is proposing a flat fee. He has engaged with the Law Society and the Bar Council in respect of this. Expenditure on criminal legal aid in the District Court has nearly doubled from €19 million in 2015 to €37 million in 2024. Come on, Deputy. We cannot all go around the place saying-----

---

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/2026-06-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:09+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-17