The new human rights Act, to be enacted next month, could have its first test next year in the Irish courts if long delays in legal aid provision are not reduced, The Irish Times has learned.
Waiting lists for civil legal aid, which is mainly for family law cases, have been increasing during the past year.
This follows a cut in the grant for the Legal Aid Board of 0.5 per cent last year. Yet the numbers applying for separation and divorce are growing.
Flac, the independent Free Legal Advice Centres, which campaigns on legal aid availability, is considering taking a case under the Act, according to one of its directors, Mr Peter Ward.
The Act incorporates the European Convention on Human Rights into Irish law. Pointing out that people in certain legal aid centres run by the State Legal Aid Board are now waiting over a year, he said: "We are now talking about the same circumstances as existed in the Josie Airey time."
Ms Airey was the woman whose case, concerning the absence of free civil legal aid, resulted in the Irish government being found in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights, which led to the setting up of a free legal aid scheme. Access to justice is guaranteed by Article 6.1 of the Convention.
According to the figures from the Legal Aid Board, waiting time for the centre in North Brunswick Street, Dublin, was 14.75 months in September, while there was an 11-month wait at Cork's Pope Quay centre and also in Clare.
However, a survey this month carried out by Flac showed an increase in these delays, with a waiting time in excess of 12 months in Pope's Quay in Cork, Gardiner Street in Dublin, Ennis and Wicklow. Finglas, Tallaght and Clondalkin in Dublin, Tralee, Co Kerry and Nenagh, Co Tipperary have waiting lists of over nine months.
Mr Frank Brady, director of legal aid with the Legal Aid Board, confirmed that waiting lists were growing and that certain services had been scaled back due to lack of funding.
In particular, certain posts had not been filled, and the provision of legal aid in Circuit Court cases, where divorces and legal separations are dealt with, was effectively suspended until next February or March.
"We are prioritising District Court work, especially child custody and access," he told The Irish Times. "There has been a reduction in Circuit Court cases. We'll be starting them again in February or March."
He said he did not think that there were any human rights implications to their decisions, as high-priority cases were dealt with.
The board's grant would be finalised in discussions with the Department of Justice next week, prior to the Estimates, he said.