Mayo solicitors poised to escalate dispute over legal aid scheme reforms

Mayo solicitors considering withdrawing from legal aid panel due to dispute with Department of Justice

By Anton McNulty Published 30th Jun 2026, 15:30 BST Cases were again adjourned in Castlebar court due to solicitor’s dispute | File pic Mayo solicitors considering withdrawing from legal aid panel due to dispute with Department of Justice Sign up to our Mayo Live newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know you can manage your profile, and explore all of the available newsletters from Mayo Live within your account.

Solicitors in Mayo are considering following in the footsteps of their Cork colleagues in withdrawing their services from the legal aid panel.

The dispute over reforms of the legal aid scheme escalated yesterday when solicitors in Cork on the free legal aid scheme for criminal cases announced they will resign from the panel en masse from tomorrow if payment changes proposed by the Minister for Justice are signed into law.

In Mayo, solicitors continued to withdraw their services in criminal cases with sentencing which was due to take place this morning in Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court adjourned to a later date .

President of the Mayo Solicitors’ Bar Association, Gary Mulchrone told The Mayo News that solicitors are still in the dark as to whether the proposed reforms will commence tomorrow as planned but warned if they do there will be an escalation to the dispute.

“I am guessing that the Minister has signed the statutory instrument and the new rules will come in from tomorrow but if that is the case things will only get worse. Across the board the Minister has managed to unite everyone to say they are not happy with this.

“We will continue to withdraw our services and unless the Minister puts a stop to it and pauses it, unfortunately it will continue for the foreseeable future,” said the Castlebar -based solicitor.

As well as withdrawing their services in court, solicitors in Mayo have also decided not to represent people who are in garda custody and Mr Mulchrone said they are currently considering withdrawing from the legal aid panel.

“People are discussing withdrawing from the legal aid panel at the moment and being considered by a lot of people. Currently the situation is everyone has withdrawn their services including for custody matters which is an escalation of what it was previously. Nobody will deal with any criminal matters before the court and the next thing people are considering is if they will take the step of telling the minister they are coming off the panel. People will make their decision on what they will do,” he said.

Currently, a solicitor is paid for each court appearance, starting at €239.38, and then €59.86 for each subsequent hearing but a new set fee of €455 will be payable regardless of how many court appearances there are.

Yesterday evening, the Minister for Justice, Jim O'Callaghan informed the Law Society that he is willing to increase the flat fee to €520 but Mr Mulchrone said solicitors will still have to work for free after the fourth court appearance.

He explained that a flat fee may be suitable for some public order and other minor offences but when dealing with complex cases involving minors or people with mental health difficulties, solicitors should be paid for their work.

He said that since solicitors withdrew from dealing with custody cases, gardaí were finding it difficult to get a solicitor to represent people in custody and this may have problems with prosecutions in the future.

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“These people cannot get access to legal advice at the moment and technically are they properly arrested if they cannot get access to a solicitor and is anything they say in an interview anyway near admissible. It is a requirement of the legislation that they have legal advice.

“When the guards bring someone in and arrest them, that person has a constitutional right to access legal advice when in custody and they now cannot get that because of this dispute. The whole situation is a mess,” he said.