A decision will be taken next month whether to abandon a plan to hold criminal trials at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in the last two weeks of September, during the official court vacation.
The plan is threatened by a dispute between Dublin barristers and the Department of Justice over the late payment of fees under the legal aid scheme.
On July 18th, the outgoing chairman of the Bar Council, Mr James Nugent, asked Judge Kieran O'Connor not to put any cases into the list on July 28th, when trial dates will be assigned for September. Mr Nugent said that in effect the legal aid scheme had broken down. Contacts were continuing with the Department on formulating a new scheme, but he did not want to give the impression the situation would be any better on July 28th.
A barrister, Mr Luigi Rea, had earlier warned: "The Department should be under no illusions. This matter has dragged on year after year. Barristers are not going to work in September if they are not going to be paid."
Yesterday, when Judge O'Connor put a case in for Monday's listing session, Mr Patrick Marrinan, defending, asked that he fix "a more realistic date". Mr Marrinan said his client wanted the certainty of a date he could concentrate his mind on. He was not satisfied there had been any developments which would make the proposed September sittings "realistic".
Judge O'Connor said the acting President of the Circuit Court, Judge Diarmuid Sheridan, was aware of the problems but he had ordered that the trial dates for September be filled.
Judge O'Connor acknowledged there was a real prospect that the sittings due to start on September 15th would not proceed. But the trial list was being compiled "in the hope and prospect" the court would sit. The September sittings would be abandoned if the dispute is not resolved by a date in August, he said.