The cost of enrolling on a new full-time course for trainee barristers here might seriously affect the ability of less well-off students to enter the profession, it has been claimed.
Some of the State's best known members of the legal profession, as well as a number of senior officials in the Civil Service, have until now taken their barrister exams through a two-year part-time course.
This is offered by the King's Inns, which governs entry to the profession here. From October of this year, however, students of the barrister-at-law degree will no longer be able to enrol on a part-time basis. Following a review of the way barristers are trained here, students will instead be obliged to sign up for a full-time, one-year course. According to Mr Will Priestley, president of the Union of Students in Ireland, this means many students will find themselves unable to afford the training.
"We would be very much in favour of perpetuating the option whereby you could study to become a barrister at night," he said. "It is not just about students but professional people with families. It is very hard to take a whole year off.
"If you are starting out as a barrister, you earn very little money," he said. "A number of students will be leaving college with a debt of between €2,000-€3,000. Given that the fees for the full-time course are approximately €10,000, when you include living costs, they could be starting off with a €25,000 debt."
Ms Sarah Macdonald, dean of the school of law at King's Inns, however, said she was aware of the concerns which the introduction of the new course had raised. While the course would only be available on a full-time basis for the time being, King's Inns was investigating the possibility of providing it on a modular or part-time basis in the future, she said.
"I would like to ensure that nobody is denied the opportunity to take part in the course," she said. "I'm very keen that everybody who wants to do it should be able to do so."
The new full-time course would enable students to finish their training sooner, she added, and was comparable to the situation on other law courses, which were already full-time. A spokesman for the Competition Authority confirmed that the new course will be reviewed as part of its wider study of the legal profession here, which is due for publication in the summer.