IPRT Submission on the Review of Ireland’s Civil Legal Aid Scheme

10th February 2023

IPRT welcomes the opportunity to make a short submission to the Review Group examining Ireland’s Civil Legal Aid Scheme. At the outset we would acknowledge the Review Group’s overall approach to its work, which emphasises a ‘user-centred approach and the importance of access to justice’. IPRT strongly endorses this ethos, and it reflects our central concerns in regards the accessibility of civil legal aid among people in prison as well as broader ‘access to justice’ concerns arising for this vulnerable cohort of people.

IPRT mades the following four recommendations;

• Recommendation 1: Modes of delivery of civil legal aid should include targeted services for particularly hard-to-reach groups such as prisoners, with such services recognising the particular challenges prisoners may have in accessing legal aid.
• Recommendation 2: Accessibility of civil legal aid for prisoners should be improved through specific strategies for educating people in prison around the work of the Legal Aid Board and the operation of the civil legal aid scheme.
• Recommendation 3: Consideration should be given to the particular financial and human resources required for prison-related litigation, with a view to expanding the scope of available aid in such cases.
• Recommendation 4: Given the particular legal challenges arising in prison disciplinary hearings, and the potentially severe impact of disciplinary findings / sanctions on the person concerned, consideration should be given to expanding the availability of legal aid to such disciplinary hearings (at both first instance and on appeal).

Read IPRT's full submission here.

IPRT also joined 17 social justice and advocacy organisations in supporting Community Law and Mediation (CLM) in calling for substantial reforms of outdated Civil Legal Aid Scheme. Read the CLM submission here.