Mr. Brendan Ryan:

Every court venue, that is everywhere a court sits in Ireland, has digital audio recording. All venues in Dublin have permanent settings and each major provincial court venue has a permanent digital audio recording, DAR, computer system in the courtroom. In the case of court venues in which sittings only take place once per month over 11 months of the year, we have a portable unit. Consequently, all court sittings are now subject to digital audio recording. I might add that for indictable criminal matters, we have a backup recorder. There is a computer in every courthouse but for indictable trials, we have a secondary computer backup system just in case the first system fails because as members are aware, one must have a transcript for indictable trials for any appeals. It is all working very well, albeit at a huge cost to the Courts Service, but it is much required. In addition, it is appropriate that on the hoped-for establishment of the judicial council next year, if issues are raised in respect of conduct and ethics with regard to the Judiciary, the Judiciary will have an access to a recording of what went on in the court.