Ms Maura McNally:

I will start with the dates and the criminal courts. The Circuit Criminal Court recommenced on 31 August this year. Although September is considered part of the vacation period, the Judiciary and the Courts Service announced that the courts would sit during September. Hence, all practitioners are back and available, as such. The restriction is in respect of what is available. We have to look at the regulations that prescribe the numbers of persons who can be in any particular room or building. With that in mind, for example, let us consider the court lists for the High Court for personal injury. I will use the list for court 10 as an example. In a bracket after the list, the document states that the capacity is ten. That means ten persons. Only ten persons can go into that court. We have a judge, a registrar, a legal team for the plaintiff, a legal team for the defendant, a plaintiff, a defendant and expert witnesses. We are trying to fit the equivalent of a square peg into a round hole.

Everyone is doing their best to ensure there is access to justice. Let us consider civil cases involving a plaintiff with catastrophic injuries. The accident could have happened three or four years ago. The plaintiff is trying to get the case on and liability is in dispute. However, the resources are not in place. By resources, I do not only mean personnel but accommodation for the numbers of persons required. The unfortunate plaintiff may be no longer at work and may require specialist treatment because of injury. Such a person will have to wait even longer for the case to be heard and to achieve justice and a reward that will include monetary compensation for both the injury and to ensure that he or she gets the appropriate treatment, etc.

Bearing that in mind on the civil end it affects all civil cases. We are limited by what the infrastructure will physically allow. In respect of the criminal cases, criminal courts cases are moving out of Dublin because of the limited capacity of the Criminal Courts of Justice. For example, to try to address its backlog, it is moving to courthouses such as Castlebar. The knock-on effect of that in Castlebar is that the Circuit Court cases and the District Court that would normally sit there have to move and make room for those particular cases, which are murder cases, rape cases, etc. They are moving to sit in Kilkenny and in Cork from buildings that 12 months ago could accommodate every type of case. Under the regulations the courts must adhere to the 2 m distance and suddenly a building that could cater for 100 people six months ago can now only cater for 20. This is a logistical issue that we acknowledge and appreciate the Courts Service and Judiciary are trying to address. The only means of appropriately overcoming this is proper investment in the infrastructure, by which I mean the rental of buildings. If, for example, a court wants to sit in Carrick-on-Shannon, Drogheda or Mullingar, the courthouse will not be big enough to accommodate it and so the jury would have to be brought to a ballroom somewhere so that it can be impanelled. A safe room will also be required. All of this requires monetary investment in the court system.

The issue of backlogs was raised. The parties that can address this with greater accuracy are the Department of Justice and Equality and the Courts Service. We know anecdotally that, on average, there are between 900 and 1,000 criminal cases per year. Since the pandemic commenced, March until now, which is six months, there have been little or no sittings. On top of the 12-month backlog in respect of 2019 there is now an additional backlog arsing from the lack of court sittings during the past six months in which there were no court sittings. This has to be addressed, not only in respect of civil cases but in respect of criminal cases because from the criminal perspective particularly there are two issues. It is the rule of law that those who break the law should be appropriately brought to court and addressed and, also, the victims of incidents of crime are entitled to have their day in court. There are also persons who feel they are being incorrectly brought before the courts, who have the right to have their fundamental rights protected and the right to be defended.