The Law Society of Northern Ireland and the Bar of Northern Ireland briefed MLAs at its inaugural meeting on the importance of maintaining access to justice for people across society in the face of public finance challenges and a steady decline in expenditure in publicly-funded legal services since justice became a devolved matter in 2010.

In a joint statement, the Bar’s Donal Lunny KC and Law Society president Darren Toombs welcomed the establishment of the all-party group as a “positive development… at a time when a challenging debate is taking place about how to best enable access to justice across society against a backdrop of systemic underfunding”.

They continued: “A fair and just society requires equal access to justice. It is about helping people to deal with the challenges of life — employment issues, family breakdown, housing insecurity or dealing with criminal matters.

“These are life-changing events during which people should be treated fairly and have an opportunity for appropriate and timely redress through our courts.

“Yet many people across Northern Ireland struggle to exercise that right. Many issues apparent in the health service have materialised in the justice system — long delays and backlogs, a dedicated but stretched, pressured workforce, historic underinvestment in the system and the need for structural reform.

“This new all-party group presents an opportunity to explore these issues in some detail and to provide an interface between our MLAs and all those who have a role to play in problem solving, including third sector organisations.

“Importantly, the all-party group can also foster enhanced political and public understanding of access to justice, empowering people to access their rights.”

Alliance Party MLA Stewart Dickson, who chairs the new all-party group, said: “I’m pleased to see the formation of this group today, the first of its kind at Stormont.

“Access to justice is an essential right within any democratic society and indeed a fundamental principle of the rule of law. The present issues in our justice system are certainly extensive and cause great concern. So, a group dedicated to exploring access to justice issues is timely, and it will be beneficial for MLAs who are eager to dive deeper and find some solutions to these problems which are impacting people and their outcomes in our constituencies.

“Access to justice can’t always receive the attention it requires in the Assembly or even the justice committee, so I’m glad that we have this additional forum spearheaded by the Law Society and Bar of Northern Ireland to inform MLAs practically about these challenges.”