It’s no secret that I think that the Irish legal system is a serious rip-off. There is no value for money. The fees are massive, the service is so-so, the speed of execution is abysmal and the value-for-money is close to non-existent. I’m involved in an ongoing discussion on the Irishlaw mailing list about the topic.

The ongoing Tribunals (Flood, Moriarty and Morris) really highlight how high the costs are. A senior counsel (the Irish equivalent of a UK Queen’s Counsel, an attorney who acts as an advocate in court) gets paid EUR 2500 to be on the Tribunal team.

The issue isn’t just how much Senior Counsel and Junior Counsel get paid, although that’s a pretty big can of worms in itself. It’s also the question of how many of them seem to be required to get anything done, and how inefficient the whole system is and how it seems to be tied up by a relatively small cadre within the profession.

I am heartened that I have received a good bit of support from various legal professionals for what I have said on the topic so far.