Freddie Thompson granted legal aid challenge permission

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Freddie Thompson was granted permission by the High Court to bring a judicial review over the refusal of legal aid for his prison-conditions case. Mr Justice Charles Meenan granted permission on an ex-parte basis.

The proceedings were reported on 5 July 2021. Thompson’s earlier 2019 action concerned what he described as oppressive conditions during 18 months in Portlaoise Prison’s A4-wing, known as the punishment block.

That action was withdrawn in November 2019 after Thompson was moved to the mainstream prison population, although the respondents did not accept that the move resulted from his legal action. The new action sought to quash legal-aid refusals made in August 2020 and repeated in March 2021; it was due back before the court in October.