Free legal aid - Overhaul overdue

Contributions to a debate on reform of our free legal aid system at a Limerick County Council meeting will be widely supported.

Though everyone is entitled to legal representation, our system seems open to exploitation by those who use it and those who provide it.

Even if the State was not teetering on the verge of bankruptcy it would be appropriate to review how we provide this service. It is impossible to understand why the State does not employ, on a fixed salary, some of the thousands of struggling solicitors and barristers to provide this service. Even if this was done on a long-term contract basis it would offer better value. That it has not points to the privileged positions still enjoyed by some professions despite the urgings of the troika that a far more open and equitable approach be adopted.