'Dangerous people' walking Cork's streets due to solicitors' strike, says councillor

“Dangerous people” who should be in prison are still walking our streets due to the justice minister’s handling of an ongoing withdrawal of services by criminal legal aid solicitors, a Cork councillor has said.

There 339 people incarcerated in Cork Prison on Wednesday which is down 21% from the record of 430 rearched earlier this year, and down from 393 on this day last year.

The average number of people in custody in Cork Prison in 2026, up to the start of June, was 411, but the figure dropped below 400 for the first time in more than four months in July when criminal defence solicitors around Ireland began a co-ordinated withdrawal of services.

Adjourned

Cases have been adjourned into the future, due to the dispute over the Department of Justice’s decision to replace the current system of legal aid payments with a single flat fee per client, regardless of how many hearings the case requires.

Former solicitor and Fine Gael TD Colm Burke previously told The Echo that the reduction in the number of people being committed to prison was definitely linked to the strike, and that it could lead to a rush of people entering custody when normal service resumes.

The legal year ended last week for the summer break, with no sign of any immediate breakthrough in the dispute.

More than 200 criminal defence solicitors across the country overwhelmingly agreed last week to extend into August their withdrawal of services.

Fianna Fáil councillor Terry Shannon, chair of the Cork City Local Community Safety Partnership, criticised Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan’s manner of dealing with the solicitors, saying that the Fianna Fáil TD “has handled it pretty badly”.

“I know solicitors who say there was little or no consultation with solicitors from the minister, which is a surprise given he is from that practice himself.” 

He said he understood the Minister’s concerns about finances and that it could be advantageous for solicitors if a case was adjourned under the current system.

But, he added, it’s an industrial relations area. "And when people withdraw labour, that’s a failure of management.” 

Mr Shannon continued: “The concern is that people who should be locked up and the key thrown away are instead walking the streets still."

As chair of the Local Community Safety Partnership, he said he was now aware of the levels of crime, and had seen an upsurge of people checking car doors, hoping to steal them.

“Some people are nefarious, and they need to be dealt with, so numbers in custody going down is a worrying trend,” 

he continued.

Mr Shannon also said that he was in favour of the plans to build more prison capacity on the site of the old Cork prison, because "we live in a society where people are dangerous".

He said he'd heard "through the grapevine" that judges get a list each morning with the spaces available in prisons, are told how many they can put on remand.

"I’m also worried about the amount of people out on bail,” he said.