State considering barristers’ appeal for fee cut reversal

In Ireland, publicly-funded defence barristers and prosecuting barristers have parity of pay, meaning that prosecutors’ fees were cut during the Government’s bid to reduce legal aid spending.

A submission by the Bar Council of Ireland to the Department says the long-term effect of reduced fees “will be corrosive and most certainly not in the public interest”.

It also claims that some time-consuming aspects of criminal prosecution work are essentially going unpaid.

In a statement to The Irish Times, the Department said it was examining the request in conjunction with the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The Department said that “consideration of the Bar Council’s approach will have due regard to the level of restoration of professional fees occurring in other sectors under the roll-back of the Fempi regime”.