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Legal Aid (Northern Ireland) Order 2005

My Lords, I was delighted to hear the Minister say that the Lord Chancellor will consider the Omagh case. I understand that it is not feasible to refer to it at the moment, but I hope that he will listen very carefully to what the people of Omagh have to say about it. I am grateful to the Minister for bringing this order to the House. I assure him that we on these Benches fully support it. Since the Access to Justice Act 1999, we have had a much better system of providing legal aid in England and Wales than has been the case in Northern Ireland. This order is timely in addressing that anomaly. Granting legal aid in exceptional circumstances will bring Northern Ireland within Articles 2 and 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. I have just two questions for the Minister. Are there restrictions on legal aid for civil cases? It seems that use of legal aid in criminal cases will inevitably use up a lot of specified money. Will there be any moves to redress the balance between legal aid for civil and legal aid for criminal cases if that proves to be necessary?