Three senior Irish Examiner journalists and an Echo reporter were among the winners of this year's Justice Media Awards.

Details released under the Freedom of Information Act show Dublin City Council spent nearly €2.2m on paying barristers between January 2018 and last month.

The Free Legal Advice Centres (FLAC) has used events around its 50th anniversary to call on the government to extend the areas in which legal aid can be granted, including employment appeals cases.

David Byrne, Denis McCullough, Vivian Lavan and Ian Candy are not, collectively, household names in Ireland, but they should be.

The DPP has revealed that payments to barristers to prosecute cases in the criminal courts last year totalled €17.39m - an increase of €1m, or 6%, on the €16.4m paid out in 2017.

Ireland’s spend on the judicial system is among the lowest across a 45-member group of European countries but our spend on legal aid is one of the highest.

The head of Flac, the free legal aid service, is seeking wider powers to be given to the courts in dealing with mortgage holders in deep debt.

The Legal Aid Board was so cash-strapped last year it reallocated funds earmarked for the Abhaile Scheme which helps people who are insolvent and in mortgage arrears.

Low earners are having to wait more than a year to see a solicitor in some parts of the country because demand for free legal aid has almost doubled in recent years.

It is a revealing and shameful comment on austerity-mad Ireland that low earners have to wait more than a year to see a solicitor because the number of people seeking free legal aid has doubled during the Coalition’s harsh economic programme.

Hard-pressed taxpayers and mortgage-holders have “had it up to their necks” as far as free legal aid is concerned, Limerick County Council heard yesterday.

A father of three who had legal aid withdrawn after he went on holidays instead of appearing in court was on his first family vacation in seven years, a judge has been told.

Contributions to a debate on reform of our free legal aid system at a Limerick County Council meeting will be widely supported.