Legal Aid Advocates Urge Immediate Funding

Julia Fischer • 05/07/2026 • 3 min read

Discover why legal aid funding is urgently needed in Ireland as advocates warn vulnerable people face denial of justice due to underfunding.

Legal Aid Advocates Urge Immediate Funding - legal aid funding — Legal Aid Advocates Urge Immediate Funding

Legal bodies in Ireland are calling for immediate investment to fix the country’s civil legal aid system, warning that vulnerable people—including victims of domestic violence—are being denied access to justice. The Oireachtas Justice Committee’s Report, published yesterday, details how low pay for legal practitioners has created retention problems and left parts of the country without adequate legal services.

Decades of underfunding have pushed the system to a crisis point

The document contains 30 recommendations.

Several endorse proposals from the Law Society of Ireland. It follows an independent review chaired by former Chief Justice Frank Clarke SC, which produced both a majority and a minority report on the Civil Legal Aid Scheme. The Legal Aid Board, according to the findings, is being asked to do more with resources that haven’t kept pace with demand. Rosemarie Loftus, president of the Law Society of Ireland, described the situation bluntly. “Decades of neglect and underfunding have left Ireland’s Civil Legal Aid Scheme a mere shadow of what it should be,” she said. “This results in people being denied access to justice on a daily basis.” The scheme is “in crisis and in need of immediate reform,” she added.

Only a small number of solicitors in Dublin will accept a family law case under the scheme, Loftus noted, and this pattern is repeated across the country. She said legal deserts—areas without accessible legal help—are already a reality in parts of Ireland. The Law Society welcomed the committee’s recognition that reform must center on a stronger, better resourced Legal Aid Board. The report lays out a roadmap that includes expanding capacity, modernizing eligibility rules, and extending the scheme’s scope. She reiterated the society’s call for “immediate investment and sustainable resourcing.”

Waiting times have become unsustainable, barristers say

Seán Guerin SC, chair of the Council of The Bar of Ireland, said the civil legal aid system has been under significant strain for many years, very negatively impacting access to justice for vulnerable people nationwide. He welcomed the committee’s recommendation that eligibility thresholds should be reviewed and index linked. The Bar of Ireland also supported the call to adequately fund the Private Practitioner Scheme (PPS), which relies on solicitors and barristers taking cases at set rates. Those rates have driven experienced practitioners away, Guerin said, resulting in unsustainable and unjust waiting times. He described the work as increasingly complex, while the reduced fee structure makes it commercially unviable.

The Clarke Review Report identified the same issues a year ago, but no substantive proposals have been published since then. Guerin noted that the Minister recently told the Joint Committee he intends to address the matter in Budget 2027. A year of inaction on a problem that was already urgent suggests the gap between political acknowledgment and actual reform remains wide. Justice Committee members from multiple parties backed the report’s findings. The recommendations include salary and fee reviews for solicitors, barristers, and independent experts, with rates to be index linked to prevent the same decay from recurring. The document pushes for a phased, coherent approach rather than emergency patches. Loftus said the Law Society looks forward to working with the Government, the Legal Aid Board, and other stakeholders to deliver reform. “Action is now needed,” she said, “to restore capacity to Civil Legal Aid and to future-proof this vital service.”