It is another week of chaos in the criminal courts as hundreds of solicitors have withdrawn their services for legal aid. Thanks to the actions of the Minister for justice, Deputy Jim O'Callaghan, thousands of cases have already been adjourned, not just in the District Court but in the Circuit Court and the Central Criminal Court, where the most serious crimes are prosecuted. Yesterday, at the Central Criminal Court, 12 rape cases were listed. Of that number, just two trials were able to start and that is only because the defendants in those two cases were minors and solicitors have not withdrawn their services in cases involving children. All the other cases were adjourned. This is an absolute disaster.

It was also reported today that a man has been charged with murder without having access to legal advice during Garda questioning. I do not want to comment on this or any other case before the courts but we should all be aware that being unable to access legal advice in Garda stations could pose very serious problems in subsequent criminal trials.

The question for the Government is how long it will allow this chaos to continue. This is a crisis of the justice Minister's own making. I have serious concerns about the way he has gone about this. At every stage, he has failed to meaningfully engage with solicitors, preferring instead to just portray them as abusing the system and being unethical. Clearly, the Minister and the Government seem to believe criminal legal aid solicitors are gaming the system and trying to line their pockets by prolonging criminal cases. The problem for the Minister is he does not have a shred of evidence to back this up. For a start, his own internal review is clear that it does not know the reason adjournments are requested. Also, it is just a matter of fact that, ordinarily, adjournments are requested by the State because there is some delay on the prosecution side. Finally, it is judges who grant adjournments. Does the Minister seriously think judges are conspiring with solicitors to delay cases in order that solicitors can make more money? That seems to be the implication.

This chaos simply cannot continue. These changes to the legal aid system must be reversed. Then there needs to be a real consultation about reforms that would genuinely improve the system. Does the Minister, Deputy Chambers, share our concerns about the chaos we are witnessing in the courts and will the Government admit that the justice Minister's attempt to ram through these changes has been a disaster?

The Minister for justice has introduced an 8% increase in criminal legal aid fees payable to solicitors in the Circuit Court and higher courts from 1 July 2026. This represents total restoration of the criminal legal aid fees under the financial emergency measures in the public interest, FEMPI. As the Deputy described, the Minister has also introduced a fee of €520 for District Court criminal cases under the criminal legal aid scheme. This figure represents the current fee paid for five appearances in the District Court, plus an 8% increase. The weighted average of appearances by a solicitor in criminal cases that are legally aided is five. Many cases require fewer appearances to be concluded.

The objective of these reforms by the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, is to make the system more effective and efficient. He has set out very clearly why he was trying to do this. They will also ensure that those accused of crimes are provided with the legal representation to which they are constitutionally entitled.

In considering the need for reform, it is important to note that while the volume of criminal cases in the District Court has actually decreased, expenditure on criminal legal aid in the District Court has increased, from €19 million in 2015 to over €41 million in 2025. Every Minister across Government must examine reform and no area of expenditure should be immune from reform or from changing the system to make it work better for people.

In the context of reform, it is important that the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, has assessed this area. The Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration reviewed more than 350,000 District Court cases which took place during 2022 and 2023 and, again, developed reform proposals in that regard. The system being reformed is designed to improve efficiency, reduce unnecessary adjournments, simplify the administration of criminal legal aid, speed up case resolution and enable faster payments to practitioners. Under the new system for cases in the District Court, regardless of the number of appearances, a set fee will be payable to solicitors, replacing the previous appearance-based sliding scale.

The review that was undertaken showed that cases with criminal legal aid take an average of 313 calendar days to complete, compared with 133 days for cases without. The weighted average number of appearances for cases with criminal legal aid is five, while the weighted average without criminal legal aid is just over three. While cases with criminal legal aid take significantly longer than those without, the outcomes are similar. The reforms the Minister is progressing are to address the structural issues identified during this review. These include unnecessary adjournments resulting from the payment-per-appearance model, and to deliver a reformed criminal legal aid system that works for everybody, is efficient and effective and provides value for money for the taxpayer. It is in that context which he has advanced the reforms and also in which he increased the fee, set a few weeks ago to €520, which provides for the FEMPI restoration.

I think everybody agrees that reform is needed. The point is that the Minister for justice's approach has been an absolute disaster. His review looked into 350,000 cases. He is repeatedly citing three cases. Three in 350,000 does not really stand up to scrutiny. In addition to that, his main argument for pointing the finger at solicitors is the number of adjournments, but there is no mechanism for recording the reason for adjournments. We all know that the majority of them come from the State's side. Why is he not introducing a mechanism to record the reason for adjournments and taking it from there? It simply does not make sense.

The final point I would make is that it has resulted in cases not being heard in their thousands. There are people who cannot access free legal aid, crucially. There are cases not being heard and there are victims who ultimately will not get justice. Where is this going to end? Is there anything other than a climb-down for the Minister at this point? What is the Government going to do now that it is in this situation? Will it accept that its approach has not worked and tell us what the next step will be?

The Deputy set out the need for reform but did not say anything about how she would reform it.

I did; I said we would check why the adjournments are happening.

The Department of justice advanced a review. The Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, has been informed by it and has taken the respective reforms and progressed them. There is a distinction between how the criminal legal aid system has been working with comparative cases and those who are not on criminal legal aid of five days to three. He is providing for a weighted payment of five and providing the FEMPI restoration accordingly. We all want to see a system that works and is victim focused - that is absolutely the case - but we also need a system that has sustainability of expenditure. When we see the growth of expenditure on the criminal legal aid scheme over the last number of years despite reduced case volume in the District Court, that has to raise legitimate questions from a Government that wants to drive reform. That is why the Minister has evaluated this and taken an informed view on progressing it. He has also said that he will keep the operation of the new scheme under review.

Destroying the courts.