Bar calls for fee restoration in Budget 2025
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Pictured: Seán Guerin SC, chair of the Council of The Bar of Ireland.
The Bar of Ireland has urged the government to use Budget 2025 to restore the full range of FEMPI-era cuts to criminal barristers working for the State.
In its pre-budget submission, published today, the representative body for over 2,000 practising barristers also calls for restoration of the pay link with national wage agreements, which was severed in 2008.
The government will soon unveil its first budget since the Bar Council led criminal barristers out on an unprecedented withdrawal of services across three days this summer. A previous one-day withdrawal of services last October led to a partial 10 per cent restoration of legal aid fees.
Bar Council chairperson Seán Guerin SC said: “Since, and for many years prior to the last Budget, the cooperation of The Bar of Ireland in ongoing reform and improvement of the administration of criminal justice has never been found wanting.
“That has been acknowledged as far back as 2018 by several government ministers, senior civil servants and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
“Yet, barristers continue to be treated differently to others in the criminal justice system and indeed to society at large. All we are seeking is fairness for our members, and for necessary investment in the criminal justice system.”
He continued: “We are calling on the government to reverse the FEMPI-era pay cuts and to restore the link with national wage agreements. The frustration amongst criminal law practitioners was clear at the protests earlier this year and last.
“We welcome the assurance the Taoiseach has recently given to the Bar Council that he and the minister for justice are committed to further restoration of professional fees.
“We have seen the impact that delays have on people who have cause to go through the criminal justice system. A lack of experienced and available barristers to fully and properly defend or prosecute a case leads to inequality and injustice, which have an impact on everyone in society.
“Public trust in the criminal justice system should not be taken for granted and must be protected.”
The Law Society of Ireland also called for fee restoration in its pre-budget submission, published earlier this month.
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