They provide for a definition of legal counselling, setting it distinctly apart from legal advice, legal assistance and legal representation. Amendments Nos. 58, 61 and 63 will ensure that applicants are made aware of their right to legal counselling, their right to consult a legal representative and their right to apply for legal advice and legal aid.
What we have sought to do in the proposed definition of legal counselling, which is contained within amendment No. 14, is to set out what in fact legal counselling will be, namely, "any guidance, information or assistance given to an applicant on matters relating to the application procedure by a person appointed under section 11B(1) of the Act of 1995, which is the Civil Legal Aid Act, to provide legal counselling". This is not legal counselling but legal representation.
Key terms by TF-IDF across 12,823 words from 14 speakers. The summary quotes the highest-scoring sentences verbatim — nothing is paraphrased.
Tellers: Tá, Senators Nicole Ryan and Joanne Collins; Níl, Senators Garret Ahearn and Pat Casey.
| Question | Result | Tá–Níl |
|---|---|---|
| Amendment put: | Lost | 15–25 |
| Amendment put: | Lost | 15–26 |
| Amendment put: | Lost | 13–23 |
Party shown is the one each member held on 2026-03-18, frozen by a dated join — not their party today. The Oireachtas API publishes no date of birth and returns an empty gender field for every member in this period, so no age or gender breakdown is shown.