Nationalise the legal aid scheme - Free legal aid

THE free-legal-aid scheme is a bulwark of our justice system, but it, like so many services paid for out of the public purse, is coming under pressure. The lawyers who make themselves available to the service want the pay cuts — 28.5% according to the Law Society — imposed during the recession to be restored.

This comes as Minister for Justice, Frances Fitzgerald, is reviewing the scheme and considering closing it, though how that might sit with a person’s right to legal representation, irrespective of their means, has yet to be explained. However, the professionals need not fret about lost incomes. If Ms Fitzgerald’s capitulation to the Law Society, over the Legal Services Bill, is anything to go by, they hold the trump card. It is an indication of the power of the Law Society that they won these concessions, in the face of troika demands for legal- sector reforms. There may be a way to square this circle, however. Would it make sense for the State to employ lawyers on a fixed salary to run the free-legal-aid scheme? Would the Law Society allow it — even if it became government policy? Many solicitors may be happy to be employees and avoid the stress of managing a practice. After all, if the idea of automated trams can be floated to outflank the Luas unions threatening all-out strike, why not float the prospect of State-employed solicitors to do this work? The smart money, however, might be on the automated trams arriving first.