Six legal aid centres have waiting lists of one year or more, according to the August 1999 figures from the Legal Aid Board. The Newbridge and Wicklow centres had the highest waiting times, 20 months.
South Mall in Cork had a waiting time of 16 months, Galway 14 1/2 months and Tralee 14 months. Waiting lists for August in general have increased compared to figures from the last annual report for 1997. However, some reductions have also been recorded since then.
The waiting time for the legal aid centre in Tullamore, Co Offaly, has been reduced from 10 months to two. Some of the Dublin centres, including Blanchardstown, Clondalkin and Tallaght, have also shown decreases in waiting times. Mr Frank Brady, director of the Legal Aid Board, said the reason for the lengthy waiting times in Wicklow and Newbridge was a high turnover in staff. Three solicitors now work in both of these centres, and Mr Brady said he hoped to see reduced waiting lists in the coming months.
He said that he did not expect Government aid to the Legal Aid Board to increase significantly in the future but he hoped waiting times would be reduced by using more private practitioners for legal aid work.
The Government allocated more than £11 million to the Legal Aid Board in 1999, an increase of 24 per cent on the previous year.
The annual report for the Legal Aid Board, due out in mid-October, is to show a "slight reduction" in the number of people applying for legal aid, according to Mr Brady. In addition, the number of people requesting legal aid for the purpose of applying for a divorce is roughly similar to the figures for the previous year, Mr Brady said.
Although cases such as divorce and judicial separation were subject to waiting lists, other priority cases, such as child abduction and barring orders, were seen to within a day, Mr Brady said.