Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 29 September 2026
592. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration to provide the totals paid out in expenses for solicitors on the free legal aid scheme, for each of the past ten years, to date; and to provide a breakdown provided of those expenses into categories of expenses as applicable such as travel expenses/mileage, subsistence and incidentals. [68740/26]
View answerUnder the Criminal Justice (Legal Aid) Act 1962, it is the Courts, through the judiciary, that are responsible for the granting of legal aid. My Department is responsible for the administration of, and has budgetary responsibility for, the Statutory Criminal Legal Aid Scheme.
As outlined in the Programme for Government 2025, the Government has committed to reforming the operation of Criminal Legal Aid, and work is continuing on the drafting of the Criminal Justice (Legal Aid) Bill 2023. The General Scheme of the Bill was published in 2023, and its key purpose is to transfer the administration of and budgetary responsibility for the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme from the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration to the Legal Aid Board in order to strengthen oversight and governance structures for the Scheme.
Under the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme, claims for payment for expenses including and not limited to, mileage, travel, parking, accommodation and consultation fees are received from any number of individuals associated with a case including, solicitors, barristers, interpreters, translators and witnesses. Therefore, the information is not available in such a way as to provide a breakdown of particular expenses claimed by one type of profession only.
However, I can inform the Deputy, that the table below sets out the total amount of expenses paid under the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme for the years 2016 to 2025 and up to 22 July 2026.
|
Year |
€ |
|
2016 |
€10,651,289 |
|
2017 |
€975,084 |
|
2018 |
€1,124,406 |
|
2019 |
€1,169,182 |
|
2020 |
€1,159,237 |
|
2021 |
€1,398,868 |
|
2022 |
€1,493,956 |
|
2023 |
€1,555,622 |
|
2024 |
€1,541,777 |
|
2025 |
€1,747,712 |
|
2026 |
€626,419 * |
*up to 22 July 2026
