ALMOST five years ago, when the troika stormtroopers confronted our Government with a chilling dose of reality around what we could and could not afford, one of the cost drivers targetted was Ireland’s exceptionally high legal fees. 

Doubts over whether the proposed Government reform of the legal system will ever be realised have intensified after the European Commission failed this week to address the issue when it made a number of other recommendations, involving cutting health costs, and tackling unemployment and mortgages.

Alan Shatter set out to reform the judicial system but left a lot of legislative loose ends behind, writes Kyran Fitzgerald