Bailey case highlights the need for far deeper legal reform in Ireland

What is interesting about court cases in which the State is involved is the way they show how little has changed since our ‘democratic revolution’ in 2011.

We were told that replacing the cronyism of Fianna Fáil with the cronyism of Fine Gael and Labour would see the institutions of the State being held to a higher standard than before.

Yet a quick perusal of all the various investigations since 2011 into the Garda, HSE or other maladministration shows the default reaction of the State to anyone who challenges it is to attack them with the full weight of its legal resources.

We’re told this is because doing otherwise would leave the taxpayer liable to costs. Yet the reality is that the legal fees incurred by the State fighting cases can end up more expensive than the actual award made.

If the State could be more responsive to its accusers in the first place then there would be no need for protracted legal processes that only serve to enrich the legal profession and further erode the public’s trust that the State acts in their interests and not in the interests of its own establishment.

In the Bailey case certain evidence was directed to be inadmissible opinion. Other countries allow for all evidence to be made publicly available and only then can both sides make their arguments.

I wonder how the members of the jury, who gave up so much of their time, feel about the decision they reached, now that they are aware of the information that was withheld from them.

The other issue these cases raise is does no one in the Department of Justice or Finance keep track of the legal fees being accrued or ever query the justification?

Some reports indicate the cost to the taxpayer of the State legal team was over €70,000 a day but how can such fees possibly be signed off when in these days of austerity, we are told there is no choice but to deny a sick child a medical card?

There has to be something rotten with a legal system that can allow a matter like this to drag on for so many years.

A court of law should have been able to assess whether or not Mr Bailey was guilty or not far sooner and any secondary legal issues that arose should have been resolved far sooner and far more cost effectively.

Perhaps the Irish legal profession is seeking to copy the Italian legal system where no one is ever found guilty of anything, unless they are an African immigrant, and are able to fund endless appeals at the taxpayers’ expense.

Other countries are able to carry out and complete comprehensive and transparent investigations into all manner of complex matters in a far more equitable and cost effective manner, so why do we never learn from best practice?

Desmond FitzGerald

Canary Wharf

London