Free legal aid - Government must clear the logjam

It is a revealing and shameful comment on austerity-mad Ireland that low earners have to wait more than a year to see a solicitor because the number of people seeking free legal aid has doubled during the Coalition’s harsh economic programme.

A stark glimpse of life below the radar, nationally about 3,000 applicants await a first consultation and 2,000 more are in the queue for a second appointment in some parts of the country. That is a denial of a person’s constitutional rights.

The worst logjam is in Cork South where those on free legal aid have to wait 64 weeks for a first appointment with a solicitor and another year for a second meeting. With Limerick a close second, past experience suggests such delays could backfire on the Government. In 2005, for instance, the High Court in Cork awarded compensation to a woman who had waited 25 months for an appointment, ruling her constitutional rights were breached.