Housing crisis making access to legal aid ‘even more pressing’, says rights group

The housing and cost-of-living crises are “exacerbating issues of economic inequality” and making access to civil legal aid “even more pressing,” the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) has said.

Last summer the Minister for Justice Helen McEntee initiated a review of the civil legal aid scheme for the first time in its 40-year history. Publishing its submission to the independent review on Monday, IHREC recommended that a “more flexible approach” to the application of means tests should be adopted, and that the income, capital and allowance thresholds of means tests should be “adjusted to realistic levels to take account of increases in the cost of living” and of additional costs incurred by vulnerable groups, for example, the cost of disability.

IHREC also recommended that the State conduct a review into barriers which “may impede the accessibility of the scheme” for vulnerable groups, and that the civil legal aid scheme be “equality proofed” to “guarantee equality of access” for all those availing of the scheme.

The Civil Legal Aid Act 1995 should be “amended to provide that the Legal Aid Board may provide free legal advice and aid to all victims of sexual offences”, IHREC said, adding that the term “suspected victim of human trafficking” should be used in place of “potential victim of human trafficking”.

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All suspected victims of trafficking should be “proactively provided with adequate and early legal support”, the submission said.

“Equal access to justice is a cornerstone of a fair democracy,” chief commissioner Sinéad Gibney said. “Ultimately we want to ensure that our civil legal aid scheme actively enables people to access their rights, whatever their background. Equal access to justice is a fundamental human right. And it’s one that we need to deliver on.”