A Cavan Barrister says practitioners are at a loss as to why the restoration of fees is taking so long.
Criminal barristers will be on strike for the first of three days from tomorrow.
The action will also see protests staged at 16 courthouses nationwide. The Bar Council is calling on government to determine fees paid to barristers by the DPP under the Criminal Justice Scheme. They want to see fees return to pre 2008 levels, before cuts were made.
Bailieborough based barrister, Séamus Clarke, says the current fee structure is having a detrimental impact on recruitment and retention of young barristers.
"It's already having an impact because we had a number of cases last year was no Senior Counsel available to prosecute two criminal cases in the Central Criminal Court of rape. Despite having work that had to get on, the director ended up in a position where she had to appoint a second Junior Counsel to run the case alongside another Junior Counsel. We feel that the impact of not having qualified young barristers coming through, the throughput having decreased, is having a detrimental effect".
