Law society aware of complaints for months

EDUCATION Minister Mary Hanafin has said the legal profession was aware of - and had powers to fully investigate - complaints that members had overcharged claimants to the Residential Institutions Redress Board (RIRB) for many months before the issue hit the headlines last week.

She added an amendment to legislation governing the board last April, in response to a request from its chairman, High Court Justice Sean O’Leary, about dubious practices by solicitors.

Since a tranche of cases was highlighted by RTÉ’s Liveline radio programme last week, the Law Society has set up and advertised a helpline for applicants to the RIRB whose solicitors charged them in addition to costs paid by the board.

The society said last week it had received only one complaint before that and had received at least 30 complaints by the weekend.

But Ms Hanafin said they had the powers to seek information from the RIRB about payments it made to solicitors since the amended legislation was enacted in early July.

“They do have that power now to get that information and the board has the power to give it to them, so there should be nothing stopping the Law Society, or indeed the Bar Council, if it came to that,” she said.

Ms Hanafin said she did not know what motivated the Law Society to act on the issue last week.

“It obviously was an issue going back to April, if the redress board brought it to our attention then. In fact, even before it came up on the radio, the Attorney General and myself discussed it,” Ms Hanafin said.

A Government spokesperson confirmed that Attorney General Rory Brady wrote to the Bar Council and the Law Society a fortnight ago asking for details in relation to overcharging and expressing Government concern on the matter.

Meanwhile, a British- based campaign group for survivors of institutional child abuse has claimed they warned the Government in March 2003 of their concern at victims being ripped off by their solicitor.

Patrick Walsh, British spokesperson for the Irish Survivors of Child Abuse (SOCA), said he met Noel Dempsey, then Minister for Education, in March 2003 in London and gave him details of two women who had raised serious concerns about a firm of solicitors acting for them.

“I told the minister to refer to the officer for the files. The minister wrote the two names in his notebook,” said Mr Walsh.

On September 5, he faxed the minister a letter reminding him of his concerns and he received a holding response from his private secretary.

“The correct course of action at that time would have been for the minister or his officials to have referred the matter to the Irish Law Society - that did not happen,” he said.

But a spokesperson for Mr Dempsey, now Minister for Communications, said he could not have pursued the matter raised by Mr Walsh.