State approach to litigation 'indistinguishable from any faceless private corporate entity'

Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik said new legislation must be introduced to require the attorney general to represent the public interest.

The Government has been called on to end the State’s current approach to legal cases “which is indistinguishable from any faceless private corporate entity”.

The Labour Party said new legislation must be introduced to require the attorney general to represent the public interest.

The way in which the State defends cases was recently criticised after details emerged of a legal strategy toward legacy nursing home charges and disability payments.

However, a report from Attorney General (AG) Rossa Fanning found the State had acted “prudently” to settle a small number of claims involving care in private nursing homes rather than risking an adverse outcome in a test case, “which could have provoked many more historic cases, all for the account of the taxpayer”.

Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik said that rather than trying to make Ireland a better, fairer place, in litigation like this, advice given to the Government by the AG places a focus on “protecting Government departments’ budgets” and “avoiding any concession of liability”.

“At present, the State approaches litigation in a way which is indistinguishable from any faceless private corporate entity — it is a war of attrition against those who dare to sue it,” said Ms Bacik.

“We have seen it in special educational needs cases; in immigration; in medicolegal cases; in cases taken by those excluded from state redress, including survivors of sexual abuse in schools and those affected by the appalling thalidomide scandal; and in recent revelations about the removal of disability allowance payments from people in institutional care. 

When people are at their most vulnerable, often it is the State which twists the knife.”

Ms Bacik has introduced a new bill to reform the Office of the AG to ensure that any legal advice provided to the Government has due regard to the vindication of people’s rights.

Pointing to the recent lifting of the eviction ban, she said the Government had “leaned heavily” on the advice of the AG, without publishing that advice in full.

“Unfortunately, we have seen several recent occasions where the Government has chosen to simply hide behind the confidentiality of its correspondence with the AG, instead of facing up to the political reasons for which it made a certain decision.

Eviction ban

“The most recent and notable instance of this was Government’s claim that a temporary extension of the eviction ban might be unconstitutional, a claim which stretches credulity. 

"People in Ireland deserve a Government that has their backs, and it deserves an explanation when the Government chooses to ignore the evidence and pursue policies which may cause them harm. Our bill will go some of the way to ensure they receive that accountability.”

She said that with record-breaking homelessness, a dearth of housing supply, unaffordable rents, and adult children living in their parents’ box rooms, extending the eviction ban would have been the better course of action to protect people in housing insecurity.

“That’s where this bill comes in. It would ensure that the Office of the Attorney General works in the best interest of the public.