Judge: Broke HSE always finds €800 an hour for lawyers

A circuit court judge has said it is amazing how the HSE claims to have funding shortages and yet has no problem in paying €800 an hour to legal teams to represent it in court.

Hearing that HSE West had stopped funding services for a teenager with psychiatric and psychological difficulties who had attempted to rob several women in Galway City last year, Judge Gerard Griffin said: “It is something that amazes me in all my time on the bench that they [the HSE] seem to send in [to court] senior counsel, junior counsel, and solicitors who charge €800 an hour and then say they have no money.”

He held up a letter signed by HSE area manager Catherine Cunningham, containing just one line acknowledging receipt of correspondence from a psychiatrist in the Central Mental Hospital who recommended the youth receive long-term, ongoing HSE residential care and psychiatric treatment. Judge Griffin said he was “entirely unhappy” with the reply from the HSE, which did not even address the psychiatrist’s recommendations.

Kevin Dinneen BL, defending, said the HSE had told him funding was not available for the treatment his client needed.

Judge Griffin said he would adjourn the matter to give Ms Cunningham an opportunity to attend court and if she was unwilling to do so he would ensure that she did.

“Jail is not where this young man should be. He needs psychiatric help and some effort should be made to give him that.

“There is a disconnect between the probation service, the psychiatric service and the HSE, and I think the HSE is the missing link in the jigsaw.”

Tyrone Crockford, aged 19, who has been in custody since Jan 6, has pleaded guilty to three counts of attempted robbery and one count of using a knife.

The matter has been adjourned to Nov 15.