Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 3:

In page 12, between lines 20 and 21, to insert the following:"President of Court of Appeal may issue practice directions

10.The Act of 1961 is amended by the insertion of the following section after section 7B (inserted by section 9of the Court of Appeal Act 2014):

"7C.(1) In the interests of the administration of justice and the determination of proceedings in a manner which is just, expeditious and likely to minimise the cost of those proceedings—

(a) the President of the Court of Appeal sitting alone, or

(b) any other judge of the Court of Appeal sitting alone as may be nominated for that purpose by the President of the Court of Appeal,

may, subject to any practice direction issued under subsection (2), make any order or give any direction he or she thinks appropriate in relation to the conduct of proceedings before the Court of Appeal.

(2) In the interests of the administration of justice and the determination of proceedings in a manner which is just, expeditious and likely to minimise the cost of those proceedings, the President of the Court of Appeal may issue directions (in this section referred to as ‘practice directions’) in relation to the conduct of appeals or applications made to the Court of Appeal.

(3) A practice direction may relate to—

(a) civil or criminal proceedings, or both, or

(b) a class or classes of civil or criminal proceedings, or both,

and may make provision for such incidental, supplementary and consequential matters, including in respect of a failure to comply with any matter provided for in a direction, as appear to the President of the Court of Appeal to be necessary or expedient for the purposes of the direction.

(4) A practice direction shall be published in such manner as the President of the Court of Appeal may direct.

(5) This section is without prejudice to any powers of the Court of Appeal in respect of proceedings before it.

(6) In this section—

'appeal' includes a cross-appeal or request to vary an order under appeal;

'party' includes a notice party or a party permitted by the Court of Appeal to intervene in proceedings.".".

While some of amendments on the supplementary list are very technical, simply inserting the word "the" and making a number of other very minor changes, amendment No 3, and a related amendment which concerns the Supreme Court, are two of the most important amendments which I will bring forward during the course of Committee Stage. This particular amendment seeks to ensure the new court will be equipped with the tools necessary to supervise the progress of the litigation which is before it. Provision is made to allow a single case management judge to be able to manage cases actively on his or her own initiative, independently of any application made to him or her by the parties to the proceedings. It does this by providing the necessary order-making and direction-giving powers to such a judge. I envisage that this provision will be of considerable assistance in meeting our obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights regarding the need to ensure cases before our courts are dealt with in a reasonable time.

The establishment of the court of appeal has provided us with the opportunity to consider the most appropriate means of ensuring appeals can be disposed of in an efficient and expeditious manner. The measures being proposed accord with those existing within the procedural regimes which apply in respect of appellate courts in other common law jurisdictions. I believe we would be failing in our duty were we not to act in a way which gets the new court of appeal off to the best possible start by equipping it with the tools to manage the litigation before it in the appropriate manner.

The amendment to section 18 is consequential upon the insertion of a new section 7C into the Courts (Supplemental) Provisions Act 1961.

See this speech in context