An agreement will be signed this week between the Legal Aid Board and the Bar Council to ensure full legal representation for asylum-seekers appearing before the refugee appeal tribunals.
Asylum-seekers who are refused refugee status following their initial application can appeal to these tribunals.
Under the agreement with the Bar Council, the Legal Aid Board will send an asylum-seeker's file to a barrister, who will draft the notice of appeal for the tribunal. The barrister and the applicant's legal representative from the board will be present at the appeal if it goes to oral hearing. The fee for each case will be £300, irrespective of how long the hearing takes.
To be on the panel, a barrister must have experience in the area or be undergoing a training course, according to a spokeswoman for the Bar Council.
A training conference was held at the weekend for those interested in the area. It was attended by about 250 barristers.
"The conference was to ensure we can stand over the quality of the representation," said Mr Rory Brady SC, chairman of the Bar Council.
"An essential requirement of vindicating the rights of genuine refugees is adequate legal representation," he said. A barrister at the conference said the high attendance showed the level of interest there was. "There are a lot of very good young barristers with time on their hands who can look up on the Internet what the situation is in places like Zaire," he said.
The chief executive of the Legal Aid Board, Mr Frank Goodman, said barristers were already appearing in appeals under the private practitioner scheme. However, the new scheme was necessary to ensure flexibility and cut out delays.
"You can't afford to have waiting lists in the refugee service," he said. The Refugee Legal Service would have 140 staff by May. It would be opening a new office in Brunswick Street, near Smithfield and the Four Courts, which would also help improve the service.