The Gazette 1977

GAZETTE

APRIL 1977

The Auditor has rightly referred to the extent of the

people's ignorance of the Law and the extent of their

rights under the Law. We must accordingly consider the

extent of the citizen's need for legal advice and then the

extent of the responsibility of the State to provide such

advice and the range and area over which such advice

should extend. There must of necessity be constraints

upon the extent to which this advice can be provided, but

I am concerned in particular with the. extent of the

responsibility of the Legal Profession to provide legal

services. I am in particular concerned that there should be

an awareness on the part both of the State and the public

as to where a Citizens' Advice Service should end and

where a Legal Aid scheme should begin.

Having regard to the rapid development of statutory

tribunals in this country, the general lack of knowledge

on the part of the public of their rights before such

tribunals, coupled with recent Court decisions, the

Incorporated Law Society of Ireland is emphatic that

from the inception of a scheme of Civil Legal Aid which I

earnestly hope will soon be provided, it should embrace

proceedings before Statutory Appeal Boards, Social

Welfare Appeals and all such Tribunals where the

enforcement of the rights of the citizens is concerned.

I am aware that the Committee on Civil Legal Aid has

been meeting continually for the past two 'and half years

to consider and make recommendations on a difficult

problem. While commending the members of the

Committee for their work in a difficult task, I would hope

that a report will be presented at an early date and that

the recommendations will be implemented without delay,

notwithstanding the financial constraints of the present

time.

The title of the Auditors paper, gives me the oppor-

tunity to turn for a moment to look at the only existing

legal aid service — that for Criminal Legal Aid.

Introduced on an experimental basis in 1965, with the co-

operation of the professions, to enable the State to meet

its international obligations, in recent years, the Scheme

has encountered difficulties and lost much of that good-

will. On the financial side, the failure of the State to match

remuneration with continuing inflation, has not encour-

aged the solicitors' profession to embrace the scheme in a

wholehearted way, much as I, the President of the

Society, would wish them to do so. Indeed, the present

unsatisfactory situation, as evidenced by the lack of

appreciation shown by the National Prices Commission

will lead many of the more experienced solicitors to turn

their back upon the Scheme. This at a time when,

following from the

Healy

Foran

judgment in the

Supreme Court in July 1976, on entitlement to legal aid in

criminal matters, more and more defendants are being

awarded aid in the Courts. The whole situation is fraught

with difficulty to which no ready solution is obvious. For

its part, arising out of previous difficulties, the Society

through my predecessors in office, urged a compre-

hensive review of the Scheme. The Minister accepted the

recommendation, the Tormey Committee resulted and the

report is eagerly awaited. More so indeed than that of the

Pringle Committee, in that it is dealing with an ongoing

scheme in imminent danger of breaking down.

Last October, it was my privilege to attend an inter-

national symposium on Legal Aid in London. On the

criminal side, one of the speakers outlined the U.S. experi-

ence since the

Gideon

Wainwright

judgment in the U.S.

Supreme Court in 1963 (the parallel of our

Healy v.

Foran).

It would appear that criminal work has become

highly specialised and has increased out of all propor-

tions. Applying the experience to this country, one is

forced to ask the question whether the present organ-

isation within the professions and within the Courts is

adequate to handle, the massive increase in case work

which is proverbially around the corner. The question

must also be posed as to whether the non-specialist

lawyer in the country town will continue to be able to

provide an adequate service in this area.

Being conscious of the degree of specialisation

which a developed system of criminal legal aid will bring

with it, I am personally forced to the conclusion that not-

withstanding the problems, the criminal scheme should

continue to be administered as a separate entity at least

until the Scheme of Civil Legal Aid is functioning

adequately.

Up to now the legal profession has accepted its social

responsibility to prqvide Legal Aid on a voluntary basis,

but unfortunately this is no longer sufficient to cope with

the extent of the public's requirement for legal services

and the liability of large sections of the public to pay for

these services. It is of vital importance to be aware of the

fact that experience from other countries has

demonstrated that such obligations placed on the legal

profession have been difficult to translate into effective

legal services. The profession in this country as in many

other countries of similar size and economic wealth is too

small and its economic prosperity is too limited to make it

a viable source of funds or services for the population at

large. This must be accepted both by the population and

the government. In this regard of considerable

significance are recent decisions of the Austrian

Constitutional Court and the European Commission of

Human Rights striking down Legal Aid Schemes based

upon compulsory, gratuitous service by lawyers, in effect

on the ground that the burden thus placed on individual

lawyers was inequitable and therefore inappropriate.

The Auditor has clearly set out the way in which legal

aid is being provided at present and I would like to take

this opportunity of publicly paying tribute to the work of

the Free Legal Advice (F.L.A.C.) Centres, staffed by

students and gratuitously assisted by members of the legal

profession whose work is recognised by the government

in the form of a small grant.

I hope that in its report the Pringle Committee will

accept that a comprehensive system of Legal Aid cannot

be formulated on the basis of being a lost leader for the

legal profession, who must be adequately remunerated for

the work they will undertake.

Before closing I would like to consider the likely effect

of the introduction of a comprehensive scheme of Legal

Aid on the legal profession itself. The nature of the

services being provided by the legal profession and the

range of its activities are ever changing and are

undoubtedly on the increase. I would urge upon the

profession an acceptance of the need for change and also

the fact that this does not necessarily involve a sacrifice of

our principles, our standards, or ethics, or traditions or

our code of professional conduct. I feel that we should be

ever mindful of Edmund Burke's dictum "that the practice

of law while it broadens the intellect narrows the mind".

There is an urgent necessity for a comprehensive

scheme of Civil Legal Aid in this country and I fully

support this call for the establishment of such a scheme. I

have every confidence and belief that the legal profession

will fully play its part in the implementation and operation

of such a scheme.