In The News

When a defendant in a court case is granted legal aid, the State pays. Before a reform of the payment system introduced on July 1st, solicitors could bill the Department of Justice €239.38 for their first appearance in court for their client and €59.86 for each subsequent one. The invoice is called a legal aid certificate.

Defendants frequently face multiple charges that are heard together in the same sitting. Before July 1st, the solicitor could invoice for each charge, meaning multiple payments for each client. In the past 18 months more than 100 cases involved at least 10 invoices being sent to the Department concerning individual clients whose charges were dealt with together or in quick succession before the District Court.

In the reform of the payment system, solicitors will now receive a flat fee of €520 per criminal legal aid client.

Many solicitors on the legal aid panel have rejected this new payment model, and withdrew their services for two days this week.

The Minister says he will meet the Law Society to discuss its concerns about payment reforms, but as he has previously said the reforms will stay, is there any hope of resolution?

Irish Times political correspondent Cormac McQuinn explains.

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by John Casey.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jeffrey Donaldson is in Maghaberry prison outside Belfast awaiting sentencing for 18 child sex offences, including rape.

If the disgraced politician thought that the blanket media coverage of his trial in June would stop once the jury gave its verdict, he was wrong.

He is still making daily headlines in Northern Ireland as shocking stories of his past behaviour emerge; – ones that throw further light on the vast gulf between his carefully curated public persona as a pious, teetotal Christian and family man, and the reality.

Four inquiries are being conducted into his actions while in the workplace, one by the NI Civil Service and one by the Assembly. Two have been commissioned by his former political parties, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP).

Since his arrest in 2024, both have tried hard to distance themselves from their one-time star member.

Ahead of his sentencing in September, he has now launched an appeal against his conviction.

Irish Times Northern Editor Freya McClements explains why the Donaldson story has left politics across the Border in turmoil.

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Israel is on an election footing. Last week with his government having reached the end of its four-year term, prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu dissolved parliament.
Polls show that a new and credible challenger has emerged in Israel’s complex multiparty political landscape.

Career soldier Gadi Eisenkot (66), a former head of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) left the army to join Netanyahu‘s post-October 7th military council to plan and execute the brutal response in Gaza.

Last year he went out on his own forming the centrist Yashar party, and he has now emerged as the most serious challenger to prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
But how much change does Israel really want. Why is Palestine and Gaza not an election issue? And what are Eisenkot’s views on one of the most contentious issues in Israel: why ultra-Orthodox Jews are exempt from military service at a time when Israel is fighting wars on many fronts and is running out soldiers.

Mark Weiss reports on the mood in Jerusalem as campaigning gets under way.

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Employees of three key State agencies use a computer programme called Passwork to generate and protect their passwords. It’s a cybersecurity measure.

But what they didn’t know, before it was revealed by The Irish Times, is that Passwork, which purports to be EU-based, has extensive links to a Russian company licensed by Russia’s security service.

The agencies using Passwork are the Office of Public Works, the State Laboratory, which provides chemical testing and scientific advice to Government departments, and the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC), the agency tasked with, among other things, helping consumers stay cyber safe. It is unclear how many other Irish State agencies use Passwork.

So what does it mean for State security? Who has access to these passwords? And what does the Russian owner of the Spanish-based company that sold the Passwork programme to the State agencies say?
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In recent weeks, the Irish Government has come under pressure to introduce a ban on e-scooters following a steep increase in the number of serious e-scooter accidents involving children. One of those supporting the ban is Seana Brennan, a mother of two from Cavan whose son, Mason, was involved in a serious e-scooter accident last year.

Brennan joins Bernice Harrison on today’s episode to share her family’s experience and to highlight the dangers e-scooters pose to children. Later, Irish Times political correspondent Jack Horgan-Jones discusses the political response to the rise in e-scooter related accidents and examines how a ban might work in practice.

Produced by Suzanne Brennan, with research by Ellen Clusker.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.