Legal aid: Solicitors accuse justice minister of Trump tactics

Justice minister Jim O'Callaghan. Cork solicitor Thomas Coughlan said: 'The minister hasn’t engaged genuinely with us… He’s choking the criminal legal aid system.' File picture: Conor Ó Mearáin/PA

Solicitors have accused justice minister Jim O’Callaghan of ‘Trumpian’ tactics by “recklessly” introducing reforms to legal aid fees that have seen lawyers leave courthouses across the country en masse.

More than 1,000 court cases, primarily in the District Court, have been adjourned due to solicitors withdrawing their services from free legal aid panels in protest at reforms, while a Dublin-based solicitor has launched a High Court challenge to the reforms.

Changes to the system have introduced a €520 flat rate for solicitors for a free legal aid case. Previously, solicitors were given roughly €240 for a first appearance for a client, and around €60 for every subsequent sitting.

Despite Taoiseach Micheál Martin urging solicitors to stand down from their protests, members of the profession signalled they are digging in, with Mr O’Callaghan the focus of deep criticism.

“The minister hasn’t engaged genuinely with us… He’s choking the criminal legal aid system,” said Cork-based solicitor Thomas Coughlan.

Mr O’Callaghan “has a monopoly over that entire pillar of work” and he is “unilaterally” exercising control over the purse strings of the criminal legal aid system “to choke it”, Mr Coughlan claimed.

It is believed that all of the approximately 50 solicitors active on Cork’s criminal legal aid panel have withdrawn from the service.

Mr Coughlan said the new system would mean solicitors having to sign up for an “unquantified” amount of work for a flat fee.

“The clients who typically get legal aid have usually lots of issues going on,” he said. 

File picture of solicitor Eddie Burke at the courthouse on Anglesea St, Cork. He said: 'It’s kind of as if [Mr O’Callaghan] has taken his lead from Donald Trump...' File picture: Dan Linehan

“There’s lots of issues in terms of addictions, there’s lots of issues in terms of poor social circumstances and domestic circumstances. There’s homelessness, there’s language problems… that all requires time.”

Mr O’Callaghan, a qualified barrister, said the reforms are being introduced to reduce excessive taxpayer funding going towards free legal aid.

Scheme cost €210m over two years 

Total expenditure under the Criminal Legal Aid scheme for the years 2024 and 2025, including appearance fees and other fees and expenses, came to €210m. A Department of Justice spokesperson said the department had been engaging with the Law Society and the Bar of Ireland since October 2025 on reforms.

Frank Buttimer, who represented the late Ian Bailey, a suspect in the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, received €578,000 from legal aid last year. 

“It’s not fundamentally about the money; it’s about not even being allowed to participate in the negotiation of your own contract,” he said.

A file picture of solicitor Frank Buttimer at the courthouse on Anglesea St, Cork. Regarding the proposed reforms, he said the minister 'was accusatory towards us, as if we’re gaming the system.' File picture: Dan Linehan

“It’s unacceptable that the new contract was not presented to us until the day before its intended implementation.”

Mr Buttimer said the reforms functioned as an attack on the Irish legal system, and that blame was being shifted onto the lawyers for adjournments that prolong District Court cases.

Minister 'accusatory towards us'

“He was accusatory towards us, as if we’re gaming the system,” Mr Buttimer said of the justice minister.

Solicitor Eddie Burke said engagement from the department was never “meaningful”.

“It’s kind of as if [Mr O’Callaghan] has taken his lead from Donald Trump... this man is going to possibly be the leader of Fianna Fáil and our next taoiseach, but he just won’t engage with us at all,” he said.

Taoiseach urges solicitors to stand down protest

Taoiseach Micheál Martin urged solicitors to stand down the protests.

He said the Government decided in February to reform the fee structure and “reform is important”.

“In my view, I don’t think withdrawing from the courts is the correct course of action,” Mr Martin said.

“I do believe progress has been made and I remember earlier reforms in previous times would have generated similar opposition, but things settled down, and then people adjusted and got on with it, and I would hope that that would be the case, and I would urge people to continue to defend people and continue to represent people.”

High Court challenge 

John Quinn, a lawyer at John M Quinn & Co Solicitors in Dublin, has launched a High Court challenge seeking a judicial review of the reform plans.

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