Reform of the State’s civil legal aid system is “frustratingly slow” the Chief Justice Donal O’Donnell has told a conference in Trinity College Dublin.
Citing a 19th-century judge, James Mathew, who was reputed to have said “justice is open to all, like the Ritz Hotel”, Mr Justice O’Donnell said there was no argument against civil legal aid “at a theoretical or philosophical level, but rather at an economic and logistical level”.
He told the conference, attended by Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan, that the State’s health budget for 2026 was €27.4 billion; the budget for social welfare was €29 billion, while the budget for civil legal aid was just €72 million.
“I am well aware that the areas of social deprivation which require assistance from the State are very many and demanding. But are we really saying that this represents the relative prevalence and importance of legal problems in society?” he asked.
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“Are we seriously saying that the business of dealing with legal issues and navigating a legal system represents 0.25 per cent, a quarter of 1 per cent, of the problems that persons on low incomes in Ireland face?” Mr Justice O’Donnell said.
Last July the Irish Civil Legal Aid Review, led by former Chief Justice Frank Clarke, recommended significant reform and expansion of the civil legal aid system, a new oversight body, and better funding, especially for independent law centres, to create a more accessible and preventive system.
The review produced majority and minority reports. A key difference between them was the emphasis in the minority report on targeted, early legal aid services and outreach to vulnerable groups. The majority report emphasised the provision of more general early services and triage of cases.
Mr Justice O’Donnell said the remark that justice was open to all like the Ritz Hotel had endured because “it captures a fundamental and persistent challenge”, that “justice may be formally open, but practically inaccessible”.
He also said access to justice cannot be reduced to what happens in a courtroom. “Access to justice may involve people knowing that they have rights, being able to obtain information and advice, having accessible procedures, avoiding excessive delay, and not being deterred by cost or complexity.
“There are no radical theorists suggesting that the whole idea is misconceived, or that AI would provide a solution of no cost. Yet reform is frustratingly slow,” he said.
Monday’s conference, organised by Free Legal Advice Centres (Flac) and the Law School at Trinity College Dublin, heard Mr O’Callaghan say he was “pleased to secure additional funding of €8 million for the Legal Aid Board in budget 2026 to support a program of modernisation and increase access to justice for its clients”.
Mr O’Callaghan said the majority and minority reports of the civil legal aid review would be considered “with due regard to the findings from Ireland’s first legal needs survey, which was recently completed with the support of the European Commission and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.”
He said the legal needs survey would provide invaluable insights into the extent of legal need in Ireland.
“While preliminary results of the survey have been released, further analysis will be required before the full results are published. And obviously, the legal needs survey is going to be very instructive in terms of identifying for us what are the actual legal needs of the people living in this country for the purpose of receiving civil legal aid.”
Mr O’Callaghan said he would “revert to Government in due course with proposals to reform the civil legal aid scheme, but was unable to provide the conference with a timeline.
