Four Irish people in five cannot protect their rights because greedy lawyers' fees are too high, the Fianna Fail TD and former minister, Mr Ned O'Keeffe, has claimed.
Demanding a Dail investigation into the legal funding system, he said: "The scales of justice are weighted heavily in favour of rich people who can use our courts of law to the full.
"Only the wealthy in our society can afford to access our higher courts of law, or those able to borrow the excessive legal fees and risk impoverishment later on. Respect for the laws of the land is essential based on availability and equality."
