Paul Murphy defends legal aid application in Joan Burton case

Anti-Austerity Alliance TD Paul Murphy has called on politicians who criticised his successful application for free legal aid to withdraw their remarks and apologise.

In a Dáil speech, he also defended his decision to seek legal aid again in his forthcoming criminal trial for alleged false imprisonment of Tánaiste Joan Burton during a water protest.

He said it was "outrageous" of TDs to attempt to use a debate on gangland killings to "make cheap, unfounded allegations and criticisms", and called on Fine Gael Dublin Fingal TD Alan Farrell to withdraw his comment that the granting of free legal aid was a "crime on the taxpayers who are footing the bill".

Mr Murphy said those criticising him were in favour of water charges, were “feeling sore” that they had been beaten and were now “trying to do damage to the Anti-Austerity Alliance and the anti-water charges movement”.

Maximum sentence

The Dublin South-West TD said that while the case was initiated in the District Court, where the maximum sentence is one year, the DPP applied to have it moved to the Circuit Court, where the maximum sentence is life imprisonment.

He said that he had paid his own fees in the District Court but that legal fees ballooned in the move to the Circuit Court and could cost him well over €100,000. Mr Murphy said it was irrelevant whether or not he took a young worker’s wage.

“I could take the entire salary of a deputy for the next year, not spend any of it, and I still could not afford to pay those legal fees,” he said. “I would, therefore, be denied access to justice” in a case that he said could last six weeks and would have hundreds of witnesses.

Earlier, Fine Gael TD Patrick O’Donovan said people were “absolutely outraged that a member of this house, getting a salary of the order of €87,258, would qualify for free legal aid”.

Aid should be assessed on base salary and not disposable income, he said. If a person on €100,000 decides to give €90,000 to cats’ and dogs’ homes, “are they going to qualify for free legal aid”, he asked.

Mr Murphy said people were speaking “nonsense” and knew nothing about how the legal aid system works and “seem to conflate the civil legal aid system and the criminal legal aid system”.