THERE HAS been an increase in the number of referrals to the Bar Council’s Voluntary Assistance Scheme since the onset of the economic crisis, according to Turlough O’Donnell, former chairman of the council and a member of the committee administering the scheme.
Set up in 2004, the scheme provides legal assistance from members of the Bar to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and voluntary groups, sometimes through collaborating solicitors’ firms. The majority of cases involved advice on a particular issue, though the scheme does engage in a certain amount of litigation.
Publishing the scheme’s annual report, Mr O’Donnell said: “In a time of economic uncertainty and reduced budgets across the State, it is likely that Government provision for legal aid, and civil legal aid in particular, will be further reduced, leaving an even smaller sector of the population entitled to avail of it.
“The consequence of this will be that it will fall to NGOs, voluntary groups, charities and the Voluntary Assistance Scheme to ensure that the rights of access to justice for the wider population are vindicated.
“The provision of voluntary legal assistance has always been a central tenet in the legal profession. Providing voluntary legal services by legal professionals has always been seen as part of our ethical duties to the wider society,” he said.
The Voluntary Assistance Scheme operates as a brokerage system, matching requests for legal assistance or advice with willing and appropriately expert practitioners. It does not accept requests for assistance from individuals unless mediated through NGOs or charities, and it has worked with nearly 100 bodies.
Among cases assisted by the scheme were the McCann case, where the law relating to the jailing of debtors was found to be unconstitutional, and the Stokes case, where a school was found by the Equality Tribunal to have discriminated against a Traveller boy.
Other cases included advice on the impact on migrant women of the Habitual Residence condition for access to services.