Talks planned on barristers' threat to quit legal aid

Bar Council representatives are meeting Department of Justice officials this morning in an attempt to avert the threatened withdrawal of defence barristers from the legal aid scheme. The dispute, which has overshadowed a plan for an early start to hearings in the new legal term, arose over serious delays in the payment of fees to participating barristers and solicitors.

The long-running dispute came to a head earlier this week when a Circuit Criminal Court judge was told a letter signed by a number of barristers was being sent to the Department of Justice giving notice of intention to withdraw from the scheme at the end of the month.

Announcing the barristers' action, Mr Luigi Rea said fees were overdue for up to two years and in some cases had not been paid at all. The problem was peculiar to defence barristers and solicitors, he said. Barristers acting for the Director of Public Prosecutions usually received a cheque within six weeks of the case.

A Bar Council spokeswoman said yesterday the Department of Justice had effectively repudiated the existing agreement on payment of fees and the council considered the legal aid scheme at an end pending a new agreement.

At today's meeting, the council delegation - led by the chairman of the Criminal Bar Committee, Mr Patrick Hanratty - will seek an agreement to be concluded by the end of the month. The new arrangement, guaranteeing prompt payment of fees, would be operative when barristers return for the new term, which may start three weeks earlier than usual.

The term traditionally begins in October, but the President of the Circuit Court, Mr Justice Diarmuid Sheridan, had decided three judges would be made available to deal with criminal cases in the last two weeks of September.

Those most affected by the dispute are a core group of about 40 barristers, according to the Bar Council, with another 150 barristers doing "the odd case" under the scheme. The spokeswoman said the problem was causing real hardship for those who specialised in this work. "Often, if you do this you don't do anything else. People are not getting their money at the end of the month and they can't pay the mortgage."