Barristers see boom in asylum cases, says AG

REPRESENTING asylum seekers in court is one of the biggest growth areas for barristers, according to the Government’s legal adviser.

While addressing lawyers during a trip to the United States, Attorney General Rory Brady also suggested there were lessons to be learned from the development of the law in the United States.

Speaking to the Washington DC Bar Association, Mr Brady said over a relatively short period of time there has been an intense development in all areas of law in Ireland.

The number of barristers in the country has more than trebled to 1,500 in the past 25 years, he said.

Stating that the areas of the law have also grown dramatically, he cited the representation of asylum seekers as one of the greatest sectors of increasing demand.

"The areas of practice have grown dramatically. This is at its most visible in the development of what we call the asylum lists in the listing of court sittings. For a country that had as one of its biggest exports its people, it is amazing that at the commencement of the new millennium one of the big issues facing our society is the challenge of immigration, whether legal or illegal. This is a clear illustration of the relationship between economic activity and law," he said.

"Our success as an economy has had as a by-product the creation of new areas of law. Indeed in this regard, when we look to the United States and see the way in which its laws have developed it is a most instructive exercise for the modern and prosperous Ireland of today," he said.

Mr Brady also called for a full public inquiry into the death of the Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane.

Mr Brady said the Irish and British Governments were awaiting the report of the Canadian judge Justice Cory into the case, which may recommend a full inquiry. "It seems to me, however, that it would be inconceivable that a democratic government would not in the circumstances of Pat Finucane's murder move to institute a public judicial inquiry," he said.

According to Mr Brady, another growth areas was the number of cases going to the European Court of Justice, resulting in a number of lawyers establishing a European Circuit similar to the old circuit of provincial towns where barristers practice in this country.

This is an interesting and embryonic development in terms of the role of the journeyman barrister," he said.