Appeal for renewed engagement to resolve long-running Mayo courts dispute

by Nathan Keane

MAYO solicitor Gary Mulchrone has spoken about the current action being taken by solicitors over changes to the legal aid scheme.

Mr. Mulchone, who is attached to the firm of Thomas Walsh Solicitors in Castlebar, clarified the position of the legal profession in Mayo and across the country.

“Solicitors in Mayo have resigned from the legal aid panel,” he began.

“They have decided to decline to work under the new model that the Minister for Justice has introduced from July 1.

“This new model is based on a flat fee, regardless of how many appearances the person might have in the court, and regardless of how many charges they might have. It is a one size fits all approach, where one fee is supposed to cover everything.

“For example, I’ve had up to 20 or 30 appearances in the one case. There are also cases where somebody could have six or seven charges, that are entirely separate, and you end up covering the rest of the charges for free. That’s the principal problem.”

I asked Gary whether this would create a backlog of cases. “Yes, absolutely,” he answered. “I’m hugely worried about that.

“Since the middle of June and all of July, we have had a significant backlog already. You’re talking six or seven weeks, and we have lost an entire session of the Criminal Circuit Court in Castlebar.

"On the final Monday when there was a callover of lists to be assigned to dates, or sentences to be set, 67 cases were adjourned. The Circuit Court in October is looking at being extremely busy.”

He continued: “I’m hugely concerned about that, and that seems to be lost in the minister’s lack of urgency in responding to this.

"He seems to be, from what I can see, letting things sit as they are. And the engagement that happened a number of weeks ago seems to have stalled, and gone nowhere since.”

I followed this up by asking what the dialogue between the Law Society and the Department of Justice has constituted.

“I know the Law Society has written to him since the end of the week before last, with two fairly simple suggestions as to how this deadlock can be broken. But there has been no response from the minister.

“There were talks in the last week of July, after weeks and weeks and weeks of the Law Society and individual solicitors calling on the minister to engage and consult on this point.

"He previously only met the Law Society once before these new rules were brought in. In the meeting he told them it was a fait accompli - it was coming in. The meeting was effectively just a discussion, but it wasn’t going to engage on any potential changes to it.

“Since then, from my count, there have been about four or five different tweaks to the system. The most recent, arising from the meeting at the end of July, was to split the payment - two thirds up front and one third at the end.

“There are still core issues that have not been addressed, and the minister has left us swinging, and has not replied, unfortunately. We are two weeks away from the District Court starting again in September, and we have heard nothing from the minister.”

He added: “It is also important to point out that the court sits every Wednesday. Crime doesn’t stop. The gardaí have to continue to arrest people. Currently it’s causing a huge problem.

“It’s a crisis, and it’s happening right now. It needs to be addressed, urgently. Especially before we come back in September.”

I then brought up a recent Sunday Independent ‘Ireland Thinks’ poll, in which 49% of people surveyed supported the Minister of Justice, while only 21% of people supported the solicitors. I asked Gary whether there is a sense of urgency in the public to get this dispute dealt with.

“In the larger public, I don’t think so, and I don’t think the broader public are hugely interested in this. I’ll just make one point on that.

“The Irish Independent recently reported the fact that over 80% of trainees who are currently training to be solicitors are based in Dublin.

"There’s two in Mayo. And when you look at the fact that there are over 120 solicitors in Mayo, the replacement rate is very very low.

“People need solicitors locally. If you need to make a will, or transfer the family farm or family business, or you want to buy your house, sell your house, or somebody within your family, or a neighbour, is in trouble, the first person that you need to turn to is your local solicitor.

“If it becomes centralised, and people locally are not providing legal aid services, and they are not dealing with criminal law, because it is so uneconomic to work in that area - you are going to have centralised and specialised solicitors, mostly in Dublin, and probably more expensive. That is a huge problem on a local level for people in Mayo, to be able to access legal advice.

“I’m not criticising the public for their views, but it’s an easy question on paper, for 49% to say ‘Yeah I think he is right.’ But he doesn’t have 100% support.

“The second point I’ll make is that until it affects people in their life, in their reality, maybe they don’t take it as seriously as they should.

"I’m shouting to say that you need to put the brakes on this now, because ultimately, if you don’t, what’s coming down the tracks is much worse for us locally here. If you don’t talk about it now you will regret it when it’s gone.”

Finally, I asked Gary what he would say if he got the chance to speak face-to-face with Minister Jim O’Callaghan.

“I would say to him that it’s really a pity that it has come to this. In my opinion, one day of disruption to the operation of a court is more than enough.

I really don’t like to see that. But I think that solicitors have felt that they can’t work in a system they see to be unworkable and unfair. If he makes some changes to the scheme he has brought in, on an interim basis, people will go back to work.

“And I can guarantee you, with the work ethic that there is within our profession, and in the courts - as happened during the Covid pandemic - everybody will put their shoulder to the wheel to clear any backlog as quickly as possible. It’s a very simple thing, to try and resolve it.

“A little bit more engagement, and a final effort at doing so, would get people back to work. So I would urge them to do that, and get this solved.

“A stroke of a pen, and people would be back to work in the beginning of September. I think that it takes a small bit of listening, a small bit of engagement, to get us to the point where we need to be to allow that to happen.”

It was great to get a chance to speak to Gary, and I am sure we will all be watching on as this situation unfolds.