Mr. Brendan Ryan:

We have put in place basic infrastructure for civil case management to really drive efficiencies in the Courts Service. We have not costed this project. It all comes down to reductions in staff numbers and funding. As stated, we have been stripping back office areas to support front-line sittings. I take great pride in the fact that no scheduled sitting has been cancelled. In that context, the number of staff in the ICT unit has been reduced from 16 to 12. That is just one of the areas to which I refer that has been affected. In general, we know what we need, but we have not costed it. If we are going to go down the route of having a standardised civil system for the High Court, the Circuit Court and the District Court - such a system will really generate significant efficiencies - we will be obliged to take staff out of all three in order to build the business case and supply the ICT people who provide exactly what is required. The difficulty is that we have stripped out staff all over the place. We cannot pursue this matter unless we obtain additional resources. As I stated, we have reached tipping point. I reiterate that we have lost 16% of our staff and that the net cost to the Exchequer of running the Courts Service has fallen by 41%, which is amazing. In 2009 the Exchequer was obliged to provide us with funding of €99 million. This year the figure is €58 million. We have made huge efficiency gains, but we need to start investing. If the cut to our staffing levels had been similar to that applied in other areas of the Civil Service - according to a report by Mr. Boyle of the IPA, it stands at 8% - we would have a staff of 980. We have 903 staff members, which is giving rise to significant consequences. I am not stating we need 980 staff.