As strikes grind the English courts to a halt, barristers in Ireland have talked up the case for similar action here as a minister reportedly gives consideration to long-awaited fee restoration.
Members of the Bar Council last week met with Michael McGrath, the minister for public expenditure and reform, who is expected to reach a decision within weeks on whether to finally reverse pay cuts made in the wake of the financial crisis.
Under FEMPI legislation, professional fees paid to barristers practising criminal law on behalf of the State were cut by amounts ranging from 28.5 per cent to 69 per cent over the period from 2008 to 2011.
Darren Lalor BL, who this year helped to organise a number of barristers’ protests outside the Criminal Courts of Justice, told Irish Legal News it is “mindbogglingly how the underfunding of our criminal justice system is permitted to continue”.
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