Criminal barristers withdrew their service nationwide on Tuesday as part of a campaign led by the Bar of Ireland to secure restoration of fees paid by the State. They have suffered a pay cut in real terms of more than 40% over the past 20 years while every other sector working in the criminal justice system has seen pay restoration implemented. Pictured at Nenagh Courthouse are local members of the Bar of Ireland, from left, back row: Padraig de Burca, Conn McMahon, Patrick Kennedy, John O’Dwyer, David Roberts. Middle row: Eleanor Power, David Humphries, David Hand, Jane McCudden. Front row: Mary O’Dwyer, Ed O’Mahony and Joan Williams. PHOTO: ODHRAN DUCIE

Barristers go on strike over State fees

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The start of the current four-week sittings of the Circuit Court in the courthouse in Nenagh was thrown into chaos on Tuesday last when barristers staged a day of action in protest over the level of fees being paid to them by the State.

Pickets were placed outside courthouses all over the country as criminal barristers highlighted a 40 per cent cut in fees imposed on them by the State over the past 20 years. Current fees remain below the levels paid in 2002.

Solicitors throughout Tipperary supported the action. The Tipperary Solicitors Bar Association said it was now vital that all sides involved should sit down to reverse the fee cuts.

During the economic crash of 2008, criminal barristers, similar to other groups of workers paid by the State, absorbed fee cuts of more than 30 per cent and uniquely had an additional 10 per cent cut imposed over and above any other group of workers.

Since 2017, other professionals working throughout the criminal justice system, including the judiciary, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), State solicitors, gardaí, Prison Service and Courts Service staff have all had their pay cuts reversed.

Among the solicitors who rowed in behind the action was Nenagh based David Peters.

“Solicitors are supportive of barristers and understand totally where their cause of their action is coming from,” he said.

Ed O’ Mahoney, a 36-year-old barrister involved in the protest outside the local courthouse, said: “It’s not that we’re looking for anything we didn’t have before. We’re just looking for a restoration that was afforded to everybody else in the criminal justice sector.”

Mr O’ Mahony said it was not sustainable for young barristers like him to remain working in criminal justice given the current level of fees. Six out of every ten young practitioners were currently leaving because they could not make ends meet.

There were serious implications for the criminal justice system if competent young people did not stay in the profession, and ultimately there would be difficulties in finding experienced people as candidates for the judiciary.

DIFFICULT

Mr O’ Mahony added: “Of course there are barristers who are quite comfortable, but the reality is that the majority of us that you would not even consider junior - from the middle downwards - do find it difficult to make ends meet, simply because these are inflationary times.

“I can’t think of any other profession where no increase in pay for a decade would be tolerated, and we’re just looking for restoration of pay. The Government has unilaterally severed the link between us and other public service employees.”

Mr O’ Mahony said there was a small number of barristers in Tipperary dealing with a huge volume of criminal cases – up to 100 a year.

Because of advances in technology, including the growth of social media, their workload had gone up considerably but the fees for such work had been substantially reduced.

SOLICITORS

The Tipperary Solicitors Bar Association said it was no longer economically viable for legal practitioners to participate in the legal aid scheme. “This in turn means that there is now a real danger of accused parties going without representation, it said.

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