Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My second question is on oversight. Our committee produced a report on the issue of policing and touched on the administration of justice. One of the practices in the North of Ireland is a criminal justice inspectorate that oversees a range of aspects of the criminal justice system and has a big picture or a helicopter view of the system as it works. The opinion of our committee is that is what is required in this State. Such a body would oversee the Courts Service in addition to policing and other criminal justice services. In the absence of that, what are the oversight mechanisms of the Courts Service? Who is it accountable to for the provision of its services, apart from this committee?