Matt Carthy: “This situation requires urgent and ongoing action.”

I appeal to the minister to not have a repeat of this situation, to stop the guillotine and the rushing, and to actually allow proper Dáil scrutiny of legislation.

solicitors were resigning from the criminal legal aid panel....others with no legal expertise are representing themselves

It devastates lives, it damages families and affects every part of our society. Behind every statistic is a victim, a survivor, a child, a family member whose life has been changed by abuse.

These are hard-working families, in many cases, where you have two incomes coming into a household, yet at the end of every single month they are stretched.