The Bar of Ireland, in response to Budget 2025, has expressed its disappointment at the incomplete restoration of the cuts that continue to apply to the professional fees of criminal barristers, implemented during the economic crash of 2008 – 2011 that saw cuts of 28.5% applied. The Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee TD announced the partial restoration, by 8%, of the cuts that had been applied to the fees of criminal barristers in 2010.
Earlier this year, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe TD confirmed that all other FEMPI-era related measures had been fully unwound across the public and civil service. The Minister for Justice previously stated that she saw ‘no good reason’ why fee restoration should not apply to the professional fees of barristers and restoration is now outstanding since at least July 2018.
A meeting attended by hundreds of criminal barristers took place yesterday afternoon to discuss the outcome of Budget 2025. Speaking after the meeting, Chair of the Council of The Bar of Ireland, Seán Guerin SC said:
While Government took the first step in Budget 2024 to restore the cuts that barristers have endured since 2008, the commitment to restore a further 8% as announced in Budget 2025 still leaves the professional fees paid to barristers 10.5% below what they should be if we are to be treated fairly and similar to all other groups of workers where the State is the paymaster.
Even this partial restoration leaves barristers bearing the full brunt of the effects of inflation since 2008.
We welcome the announcement by the Minister for Justice to restore the 8% cut to criminal barristers’ professional fees after14 years. However, this partial reversal of fee cuts announced as part of Budget 2025 continues to fall short of what criminal practitioners had been expecting.
During a press briefing on Wednesday, following the Budget 2025 announcements, the Minister for Justice reiterated her ‘clear commitment’ that she wants to see full restoration and aims to do that by next year.
Responding to the Minister’s comments made during her press conference, Seán Guerin SC said:
Since July 2024, Minister McEntee, Minister Donohue and indeed the Taoiseach all indicated that an appropriate response would arise from Budget 2025 to the concerns of criminal practitioners. There is support across the political spectrum for our reasonable ask of Government – full fee restoration and a link to public service pay agreements.
The Council of The Bar of Ireland said it will seek to meet with the Minister and her officials to discuss the ‘clear commitment’ that has been given by the Minister following which it will consult with its membership as to what an appropriate response should be.
Notes to the Editor
The Bar of Ireland, which represents over 2,200 practising barristers in Ireland, has been campaigning on this issue on behalf of its members for eight years. Criminal practitioners are the only group of workers in the criminal justice sector who have not had the FEMPI-era cuts reversed. This resulted in the unprecedented nationwide withdrawal of service by barristers in October 2023, and most recently in July 2024, with the aim of seeking an independent, meaningful, time-limited and binding mechanism to determine the fees paid to criminal barristers by the Director of Public Prosecutions and under the Criminal Justice (Legal Aid) Scheme.
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