A senior lawyer has said that the projected record Government spend of €120.5 million on criminal legal aid for 2025 “is not some kind of bonanza for criminal lawyers whose work is largely vocational”.
Dublin-based lawyer Michael Hennessy, the highest-earning solicitor on the Criminal Legal Aid Panel in 2024 with €842,221 (including VAT), made the comments in response to official Department of Justice projections showing criminal legal aid expenditure is expected to reach a record €120.5 million this year, reports Breaking News.
This comes after Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan requested an additional €21.5 million in a supplementary estimate to cover criminal legal aid costs for 2025.
The Department had originally allocated €99.04 million to fund the criminal legal aid system this year, the majority of which goes to lawyers’ fees, and Minister O’Callaghan sought clarification on why spending had risen by 30 per cent in the first nine months, reports Breaking News.
Department of Justice figures show that by the end of September, €87.76 million had been spent on criminal legal aid, a €20 million — or 29.6 per cent — increase compared with €67.68 million for the same period in 2024.
The monthly breakdown revealed €13.37 million was spent in July alone, compared with €9.02 million in July 2024, while May 2025 saw €12.14 million spent versus €10.89 million in May 2024, reports Breaking News.
The projected €120.5 million follows an 8 per cent increase in fees for barristers and solicitors agreed in January this year.
This came after the Government added €9 million in Budget 2025 for criminal legal aid fees, following barristers’ strikes last year in protest at the Government’s failure to restore a 10 per cent rate cut imposed in 2011, reports Breaking News.
In 2024, solicitors and barristers on the scheme received €84.08 million in fees, slightly down from the record €84.9 million paid in 2023.
Overall criminal legal aid spending for 2024, which also covered expert court reports, totalled €89.45 million, reports Breaking News.
Commenting on the increase in 2025, Michael Hennessy said: “The increase in the spend is not some kind of bonanza for criminal lawyers whose work is largely vocational and who are paid at an infinitely lower rate than colleagues in other legal areas. Rather it is reflective of the sheer number of people coming before the courts as evidenced by the appointment of additional judges, daily reports of prison overcrowding and the increased prosecution of new types of offences for instance those arising from social media and online fraud, while old problems such as homelessness, mental health, drugs and marital breakdown seem only to have worsened,” reports Breaking News.
Asked about the rise in spending, a Department of Justice spokesman said the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme is demand-led.
He added there has been a significant growth in legal aid grants over recent years, with a corresponding increase in expenditure, reports Breaking News.
He said that “increases in the complexity and amount of disclosure which needs to be reviewed in criminal cases and the number of legal aid certificates granted have had a significant impact on criminal legal aid expenditure,” reports Breaking News.
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