Of 16,400 civil legal cases handled by the Legal Aid Board in 2021, 1,616 or just under 10% were connected to the International Protection system which assesses whether new arrivals claiming asylum are, in fact, refugees.
Scant attention has been paid to the fact that the Irish taxpayer bears the cost of paying the legal fees for thousands of people who come to Ireland and are refused refugee status but stay in the country, also at the taxpayer’s cost, while appeal after appeal is made against the refusal.
Figures from the Legal Aid Board shows that, in 2021, of the 357 cases actually completed, 80% had taken more than one year to be completed, and one third had taken at least three years to be completed.
Statistics on the outcome of cases taken in relation to International Protection show a hugely favourable outcome for those making claims for Free Legal Aid.
In fact, none of those were refused a Legal Aid Certificate – and just 1% ended in a deportation order.
The numbers provide a succinct comment on how the system works.
As Gript reported in February this year, the costs of all of this have grown massively over the past decade.
A question from Rural Independent TD for Laois/Offaly Carol Nolan to the then Minister for Justice, Simon Harris, on the “the costs incurred by the Legal Aid Board in case expenditure following decisions to engage private solicitors to provide services to international protection applicants” elicited the following information:
That represented a 274% increase on the fees paid in legal aid between 2017 and 2022.