Mr. Brendan Ryan:

Yes, it is improving. When the Courts Service was established in 1999, courts were sitting in 230 venues outside Dublin. This now has been reduced to 83 or 85 venues, which has allowed us to optimise the use of our resources. It also has allowed us to put what limited funding we have, I assure the joint committee it has been extremely limited since 2008, into those court venues that still exist. The process is not finished and we still are considering further venues. Funding always is an issue but the combining of court offices and the optimisation of new processes within court offices definitely has resulted in a better service to the Judiciary in those remote locations.