CAB ‘no remit’ to investigate legal aid applicants in bid to reduce spending

A PROPOSAL to cut the State’s legal aid bill by using the Criminal Assets Bureau to determine defendants’ ability to pay is ‘impractical’, according to informed sources.

This is despite the idea being pitched in the Government’s review on State spending.

The Department of Public Expenditure suggested CAB do a ‘more thorough’ analysis of legal aid applicants in its review last month.

‘With due regard for the constitutional entitlement to legal representation, a more thorough analysis of a defendant’s ability to pay, possibly in conjunction with the Criminal Assets Bureau in certain cases, may be warranted.’

But informed sources said the proposal would not work in practice. ‘CAB has had no approach on this issue,’ a source told the Irish Mail on Sunday. ‘It’s not in CAB’s statutory remit. Suggesting that the Bureau get involved in criminal legal aid applications is impractical.’

CAB is charged with freezing or seizing criminal assets. Last year it was successful in seizing the property of gangster John Gilligan.

The department also suggested eligibility for criminal legal aid should be investigated by the Department of Justice and that ‘strict guidelines’ be given to judges.

It added that justice officials should review the fees paid to lawyers, as a 10 per cent cut would save €4.8m a year. However, the department said that fees had been cut several times already and that further cuts would ‘seriously compromise’ effective operation of the scheme.