The underfunding of the civil legal aid scheme can now be challenged in the courts, FLAC (Free Legal Advice Centres) has warned.
Ms Catherine Hickey, FLAC's executive director, said yesterday that the European Convention on Human Rights entitled people to "a fair and public hearing . . . within a reasonable time". It was incorporated into Irish law this January. The scheme's underfunding meant that in many centres people had to wait up to eight months even to see a solicitor, she said.
The Legal Aid Board had also adopted a quota system for the allocation of counsel in the Circuit Court, which deprived people of adequate legal representation in a forum which required it.
She was speaking at a conference of the Independent Law Centres Network held to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Josie Airey case, which brought the right to free legal aid to Ireland.
Ms Hickey paid tribute to Mrs Airey, who waged a seven-year battle for legal aid to fight a judicial separation case. Her case was eventually taken to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg by Mrs Mary Robinson, then a barrister, where she won.
The Government was ordered to pay her costs, and compensation, and introduced a limited free legal aid for civil cases as a result. But free legal aid is not available in several areas, including before the Employment Appeals Tribunal.
According to Ms Moya de Paor, a solicitor with the Northside Community Law Centre, a person challenging his or dismissal before this tribunal, who cannot afford a private solicitor, could challenge the Government's failure to provide legal aid on the basis that his or her right to effective access to the courts has been breached.
The Strasbourg court ruled in the Airey case that rights such as access to the courts should be "practical and effective".
The terms of the incorporation of the Convention into Irish law oblige organs of the State to perform their functions in conformity with Convention standards.
It also requires the judiciary to take account of the ECHR and the principles laid down in the case-law of the Strasbourg court.