asked the Minister for Justice if he will list those in receipt of fees as solicitors and barristers; the amount received in each case from the criminal legal aid scheme for 1982; and the number of court appearances and cases respectively for each solicitor and barrister.

6.

asked the Minister for Justice the total amount of money paid nationally to solicitors in respect of the free legal aid scheme; and the amount of money paid individually; the number of cases involved; and the number of adjournments per case.

(Limerick East): I propose to take Questions Nos. 5 and 6 together.

I assume that the information sought by the Deputies relates to payments made to solicitors and barristers under the criminal legal aid scheme, which comprise the only fees that my Department pay to solicitors and barristers.

It would require a disproportinate expenditure of public time and money to compile the information sought in regard to court appearances, adjournments and cases.

Records of the fees paid to individual solicitors and barristers under the criminal legal aid scheme are kept on a tax-year basis in my Department. The amounts paid to solicitors and barristers, not including payments in respect of VAT, travelling, subsistence and other disbursements, for the tax year ended 5 April 1983 are in the form of a tabular statement which I propose to circulate in the Official Report.

Taxable earnings of individual solicitors under the criminal legal aid scheme for the tax year 6 April 1982 to 5 April 1983.

Taxable earnings of individual barristers under the criminal legal aid scheme for the tax year 6 April 1982 to 5 April 1983.

Will the Minister state if his Department have given any consideration to the possibility of replacing the present system with a salaried public defenders scheme which would eliminate the employment of private solicitors by the Department?

(Limerick East): I have no such proposals under consideration.

Will the Minister not agree that there would possibly be a saving of money to the State if such a scheme were introduced?

(Limerick East): It is a separate question. It refers to policy in general rather than the information sought in the questions.

Will the Minister tell the House, from the tabular statement, the highest levels of payment?

(Limerick East): The statement runs to several pages.

I request the top figures only.

Particularly in the north city area.

It would make very interesting reading.

(Limerick East): It would involve my going through quite a number of pages to pick out the top figure. It will be circulated.

Is the Minister saying they are not grouped together?

The Chair tries to discourage probing into tabular statements.

We are asking for the top figures. However, it may not be possible for the Minister to give this information because of the way they are grouped.

The top solicitors involved are members of The Workers Party.

(Limerick East): It is not a question of how the figures are grouped: it is a question of the length of the list. I have not identified the highest or the lowest paid. I would need time to go through the lists and there are several pages involved.