THE CHIEF JUSTICE, Mr Justice Frank Clarke has criticised the amount the Government gives in funding to the justice system.

In an address to a conference, Access to Justice – Breaking Down Barriers, Ireland’s most senior judge said that the State was near the bottom of spending worldwide.

Clarke said that Irish taxpayers pay much less for justice and courts, whilst those using the courts pay much more than in other countries.

“There are undoubtedly areas where the problems of access to justice can be particularly acute.  

“Minorities, marginalised groups or the vulnerable obviously run a real risk of having less effective access to justice than others,” he said. 

The Chief Justice said that spend on Justice is directly related to access and called for access to the courts to have a seat at the budget table along with health and education. 

He said that his review of data has demonstrated two issues. 

“First, Ireland’s position at or near the bottom of the table is so stark that it cannot be explained solely by differences in our systems or ways of counting. 

“Second, and perhaps equally importantly, it is clear that taxpayers in countries in the common law system end up spending very significantly less on their justice system than is spent on behalf of the taxpayers of countries in the civil law system prevalent in continental Europe. 

“It is beyond the scope of this short address to go into the reasons for this in detail but it is fair to say that there is a significant shift, in a common law system, towards work being done by parties and their lawyers (if they have them) as opposed to being done by the court and its researchers. 

“This significant difference has the effect of transferring cost from the taxpayer to the parties to litigation.  It is at least part of the explanation as to why the Irish taxpayer spends significantly less on our justice system compared with most continental countries while the Irish litigant spends more,” he said. 

He recommended that there was a “strong case” that “some money” might be used to help people who could not present their own case before the courts.

“That is, perhaps, a moral argument in favour of greater expenditure by our government on measures designed to facilitate access to justice,” he said. 

The conference is organised in conjunction with representative, statutory, and non-governmental organisations working in the justice sector.

The Courts Service have said that it is hoped that the event will provide an opportunity for groups and individuals with “un-met needs” around access to justice to engage  practitioners and groups in the sector.

It will also look at best practices and developments that have arisen in particular since March 2020.