Mr. Brendan Ryan:

The courts cannot be so far removed from the reaches of people as to make them prohibitive and inaccessible. This applies in terms of costs as well as physical and geographic location. This is one of the key cornerstones of any decision we make. We always take such issues into account and apply very strict criteria in our analysis of venues. We always take cognisance of issues like the availability of local public transport, for example. We also try to ensure there is a court venue within 40 kilometres or 24 miles of an area. That said, it must be recognised that appearing before a court is for many people a once in a lifetime experience. Indeed, most people never appear before the courts. I know the courts are very busy but a lot would have what one could call regular customers. Most people do not appear before the courts in Ireland. If they do, it is often a once in a lifetime experience as a witness or some such. We are very conscious of the issue of accessibility.

On the other hand, we must accept that we have limited funds and must achieve value for money. By and large, the venues we closed would have sat for only an average of 11 times a year. They were stand-alone court buildings. During those 11 sittings, in many cases they would have been finished their business well before lunch time. In some instances, we had buildings which were used for only 22 or 24 hours per year and we had to question whether public funds should be expended on them when there were other areas within the Courts Service and the wider public service that needed funding. These are the issues that arise. That said, we do bear in mind the issues of accessibility and access to justice.