GAZETTE
N E W S
NOVEMBER 1993
"Paltry" Legal Aid Criticised
Addressing a parchment ceremony on
(Friday) 22 October at which 58
newly-qualified solicitors were
admitted to the profession, the then
President of the Society,
Raymond
Monahan,
criticised the Government
for a system of Civil Legal Aid,
administered through Law Centres,
which had now been proved to be
completely inadequate having regard
to the present demand for legal redress
in our community. "Those in need of
vital legal services and who cannot
afford them must now wait for
extraordinary lengths of time, in some
cases between six and nine months, to
have even their urgent legal problems
addressed in the Law Centres. Many
more who find that they are ineligible
under the paltry limits for legal aid are
being forced to endure injustice if they
cannot afford the services of a lawyer.
How can the Government possibly
state that there is equal access to
justice in this country? Surely it is now
time to recognise the right of access to
justice as a fundamental human right
on a par with the right to education,
the right to health services and so on?"
he asked.
"Today I want, once again, to call on
our Government to recognise the
urgent need to improve and develop
our system of civil legal aid so that
equality of access to justice can be
properly recognised and become a
reality. I know from discussions with
him that the Minister for Equality and
Law Reform, Mr.
Mervyn Taylor TD,
formerly a solicitor, very much wants
to achieve this end and I want to make
it quite clear that this Society and this
profession will support the Minister in
any effort he makes to introduce a
comprehensive legal aid scheme.
Unfortunately, the pilot scheme
recently introduced by the Minister
completely fails to recognise the value
of the services provided by solicitors
in family law cases and I would
therefore urge the Minister to
commence discussions and
negotiations immediately with the Law
Society so that we can both agree on
the optimum scheme. We are well
aware of the financial constraints
under which Government operates but
at the same time we believe that, with
proper organisation, a comprehensive
scheme can be introduced at
reasonable cost," said Raymond
Monahan.
"The Minister should also take into
consideration that at the moment the
unmet legal needs of the community
are being dealt with by the solicitors'
profession on a
pro bono
or voluntary
basis. It is a tradition of our profession
that nobody seeking legal redress will
be refused such because of their
inability to pay and I would urge all of
your qualifying today to continue with !
this tradition and to continue to assist
those who do not have the means to
help themselves and who are
frequently unable, through no fault of
their own, even to begin to address
their legal problems. It is wrong
however, that through the failure of
the State to provide a proper legal aid
service solicitors should be expected
ad infinitum
to take on cases without
payment so that people can have their
rights vindicated. If the concept of
access to justice means what the
Constitution of this country proclaims
then this regrettable state of affairs
must be ended and ended quickly. It is
essential that the legal profession
draws attention to these matters on
behalf of the public because it seems
to us that nobody else will."
Solicitors are giving employment to
thousands of people
Raymond Monahan told the newly-
qualified solicitors that the
contribution solicitors make to the
economy needed recognition. "At a
time when the media seem frequently
to focus on the very high earnings that
some very few members of the
profession can command for their
highly skilled services, it is sometimes
forgotten that the vast majority of
solicitors work hard, in the face of
intense competition, to make ends
j
meet and to give employment to
j
others. Maintaining this employment
is increasingly difficult for many at
this time of acute economic recession.
Law firms in this country are creating
worthwhile employment for thousands
of people
and this is something that I
feel ought to be given much greater
recognition. As lawyers, we would, of
course, - in common with everybody
else - like to see the economic
environment more conducive than it is
to the creation of employment. It is
now high time that the Government
began to dismantle the many economic ;
barriers there are to the creation of
additional employment. I am referring,
primarily, of course, to the very hostile ;
tax environment that we have in this
country where income tax and pay
related social insurance can now
i
consume up to 56% of an employee's
wages - above very low thresholds -
and where employers face what is, in
reality, a crippling taxation burden on S
employment.
Í
"I am also thinking, in this context,
about other matters which make it
difficult for lawyers to provide legal
services at
moderate
cost. Value
Added Tax, stamp duty
and
court fees
all add substantially to the cost of
j
providing legal services but, of course, |
clients frequently forget that these are S
charges solicitors have to pay
on their
behalf.
In recent years, we have seen
further impositions, such as residential
property tax, and, in the present year,
the new probate tax, which I have,
' with others, criticised. The effect of
recent changes in relation to
residential property tax is that
solicitors will not be able to complete
j
conveyances of houses without
clearance certificates from the
Revenue Commissioners and this will
only add further burden to the
complications of these transactions
and cause additional delays."
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