Will O'Callaghan's row with solicitors hinder his leadership hopes? 'Jesus no', say backbenchers

AS JUSTICE MINISTER Jim O’Callaghan’s dispute with solicitors drags on with no clear off-ramp in sight, his Fianna Fáil colleagues remain firm in their backing of the man who remains poised to be their next leader.

The party’s parliamentary membership, who have never been shy to criticise senior party figures, have been privately voicing their support for the approach taken by O’Callaghan. 

“I’m not aware of anyone in the party who thinks he has got this wrong,” one TD told The Journal when approached. 

The bitter dispute over an overhaul of the fee system for criminal legal aid solicitors has brought the criminal courts to a standstill, with a further three-day work stoppage planned for this week.

Both sides are set to meet later today, with some hope that a compromise may be reached. 

However, O’Callaghan has stressed that he will proceed with the €520 flat-fee model and that there will be no return to the old system. 

Already, the dispute has led to adjournments of criminal cases and further delays to cases that are already slow to progress through the courts.

Dublin Rape Crisis Centre chief executive Rachel Morrogh has warned that the dispute will considerably impact complainants and defendants in the coming week.

“Victims of sexual offences already face desperately long delays in the legal process… these additional delays caused by the dispute will really set some people back who have already put their lives and healing on hold to get their day in court,” she told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.

The stakes are high for O’Callaghan.

The longer he allows the dispute to drag on, the more chaos an already creaking court system will have to endure, with justice delayed for numerous individuals.

However, failing to introduce his reforms also risks reputational damage for the man who has not hidden his leadership ambitions.

Luckily for the justice minister, the timing of the dispute gives him an advantage, with the work of the criminal courts set to slow in August and September.

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All the Fianna Fáil TDs The Journal spoke to this week about the row were cognisant of this and said it was a factor in their support of the position taken by O’Callaghan. 

“I’ll be honest with you, I’d be the first person to throw a hissy fit if something wasn’t right, but there is much-needed reform here,” one backbench TD told The Journal. 

“I’m not aware of anyone in the party who thinks he has got this wrong,” they added. 

Asked if they think his handling of the situation risks damaging his leadership ambitions, the same TD said: “Jesus no. The truth is, the public sentiment is fully behind getting a grasp on this issue.” 

Another Fianna Fáil backbencher shared a similar sentiment and said the meeting planned between the minister and the Law Society today is promising.

They suggested that a compromise may be reached by tweaking the flat fee model so that it is paid at the outset of a case rather than the end. 

“I am sensing that there is a concern [among the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party] that both sides of the dispute are so far apart,” the TD said. 

Asked if the row is damaging to O’Callaghan’s leadership ambitions, they said: 

“At this moment in time, no, but it depends how long it drags on for.” 

A bumpy road to the top? 

O’Callaghan, who is widely seen as the frontrunner to replace Micheál Martin as leader of Fianna Fáil, took a knock to his position earlier this year over his handling of the fuel protests. 

His threat to send in the army in response to the blockade in April was heavily criticised by opposition parties for aggravating the protest, with many government figures also privately conceding it was a misstep. 

Despite this, he remains popular among Fianna Fáil’s parliamentary party for his no-nonsense, straight-talking approach to his brief. 

This straight-talking got him in trouble again recently, when he told an Oireachtas committee he chose not to work as a criminal lawyer after qualifying as a barrister because he was told there was no money in it. 

While this comment seemed to inflame the stand-off with criminal legal aid solicitors, it hasn’t caused much concern among his party colleagues.

“I like Jim’s honesty sometimes,” one Fianna Fáil backbencher told The Journal. 

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“People say that’s what they want from politicians and then when they get it maybe they don’t like it.”

Fine Gael unhappy 

While O’Callaghan continues to have the support of his party in the row, others in government parties have been critical of his approach. 

Fine Gael TD and practising barrister Barry Ward has been one of the most vocal in his opposition to the reforms. 

Ward, who earned €104,866 under the free legal aid scheme last year, said the justice minister had gone the wrong way about things and that there is a “fundamental unfairness” in the approach he has taken to reforming the criminal justice system.

He accused the Department of Justice of an “attack on solicitors” by citing how much they had made from the criminal-aid scheme.

Fianna Fáil TD and member of the Oireachtas Justice Committee Pádraig O’Sullivan said politicians who are benefiting from legal aid payments should refrain from public commentary on the system. 

Social Democrats justice spokesperson, and O’Sullivan’s colleague on the Justice Committee, Gary Gannon, said the justice minister has engaged in “bizarre analysis” of the criminal legal aid system. 

He agreed with Barry Ward that the report into the criminal legal aid system that was carried out by the Department of Justice does not provide evidence that criminal legal aid solicitors are responsible for the level of adjournments in criminal cases. 

Gannon made the point that individuals who rely on criminal legal aid and are in “the most complex of circumstances,” such as having addiction or mental health issues, are the ones at risk of being left without representation as a result of O’Callaghan’s reforms.

“Jim O’Callaghan is trying to look tough for a leadership contest, that’s what this is about,” Gannon claimed. 

He added: “The system needs reform definitely, but that should start with the court service, not the people who are working with the most vulnerable.”