Ferrys Solicitors partner Tony Collier called on the Taoiseach and Tánaiste to intervene in the criminal legal aid dispute on September 1, 2026, as the Irish Times reported Courts Service data showing the number of legal aid certificates granted in July fell to 702, from 10,344 in July 2025. Our criminal defence solicitors act for clients in the District Court, Circuit Court and Central Criminal Court, much of it under the criminal legal aid scheme.
Mr Collier said solicitors want the Minister for Justice "to engage comprehensively and substantially" with the Law Society to resolve the dispute, and called for the Taoiseach and Tánaiste to step in "in order to bring this dispute to an end".
"The criminal justice system is effectively grinding to a halt and we are going to see Covid era-style backlogs in court cases as a result of this ongoing dispute with the Minister," he said.
"We want to be back at work but, as this dispute runs on, victims of crime are being left in limbo, defendants in the criminal legal aid system are going without legal representation and court cases will stack up more rapidly."
The two changes that would bring Ferrys back to work
In a statement, the solicitors who have withdrawn services said they favour reform but want two changes that are "fair, reflect the work they actually do, and would see them return to work immediately".
First, certificates for offences committed on separate dates, capped at five certificates per defendant, per court, per day. As it stands, solicitors work for free once a case goes beyond what a single flat fee can reasonably cover.
Second, a further certificate once a case exceeds 10 court appearances. Fitness-to-plead cases involving psychiatric or mental health issues, cases involving children and cases with defendants in custody routinely run to many appearances, driven by statutory and welfare rules and systemic delays.
These are the cases Ferrys' criminal defence team handles every day under legal aid. The changes sought are not a return to the old scheme. They are a floor under the flat fee so that the most complex clients do not become clients no firm can afford to represent.
The scale of the withdrawal
The July figure of 702 certificates against 10,344 a year earlier is a fall of more than 93%. More than 100 solicitors walked out of the Criminal Courts of Justice on September 1, mirrored by solicitors in courts across the State.
The Department's response
The Department of Justice said the Minister "regrets the decision of some solicitors not to engage with the criminal legal aid panel", pointed to engagement since October 2025 and to front-loading two-thirds of the €520 fee, and said the further changes sought are "not compatible" with the reforms because they would "reintroduce the possibility of multiple certificates being awarded".
Ferrys' answer is that a scheme which issues 702 certificates in a month that normally produces over 10,000 is not delivering legal aid, and that the Government now needs to resolve it at the highest level.