The dispute dates back to 2009, when cost cutting solutions known as FEMPI or Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest, were taken to reduce government spending after the recession. In the last budget, criminal barristers were granted a marginal restoration to their fees, but despite this, their earnings reamin almost 20% below 2002 levels. Currently two-thirds of newly qualified criminal barristers leave the profession within six years and Barrister Lorcan Connolly from Ennis says the brain drain is placing the sector on the verge of a crisis.