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Barristers are staging protests around the country today

Until 1 pm today, members of The Bar of Ireland will stage protests on the steps of courthouses across the country where circuit criminal court business was due to take place

Barristers say they’re not looking for a pay increase, just fair pay.

Until 1 pm today, members of The Bar of Ireland will stage protests on the steps of courthouses across the country where circuit criminal court business was due to take place.

Criminal practitioner fees were cut during the recession in 2009 and 2010 with another in 2011, while the link with public sector pay agreement was also severed in 2008.

Chair of the Council of the Bar of Ireland, Kilkenny based Sara Phelan, has been telling KCLR News that they simply want that reversed; “Barristers are not looking for a pay increase. All they are looking for is a mechanism to reverse those cuts that were applied and I suppose we’re using the #fairisfair because we see that most other players in the criminal justice system let alone the wider public sector but most other players in the criminal justice system have had those cuts restored already. So all we want at the end of the day is fairness.”

Hear her conversation with our Edwina Grace in full here:

While County Kilkenny based barrister Seán D Rafter has been updating Brian Redmond on KCLR Live;