Ms Angela Denning:

I can respond to some aspects of it I will have to check out others. We took a risk-based approach to Covid. From the outset, we put a very robust risk management programme in place. We had recently recruited a health and safety officer and, God love him, his first job was to put our risk assessment in place. Every courthouse in the country was risk assessed. Every courthouse in the country had a maximum capacity of 2 m social distancing applied to it. We hired personnel to stand at the doors of courthouses to make sure capacity was not exceeded. We put glass screens in place. We asked everybody to wear masks. Extra cleaning was arranged. New arrangements were put in place where necessary.

Regarding Tallaght in particular, I can only assume that the bar room was risk assessed and deemed as unsuitable for more than one or two persons and that was the reason it was locked. I will investigate about the Wi-Fi and revert to you, Chairman.

To my knowledge, the HSE has not contacted us and notified us of any case of Covid transmission on Courts Service premises throughout the year and a half. To our knowledge, we have not had an outbreak in a courthouse. At one stage, Tallaght was the Covid court, where Covid-positive defendants were brought to court if the Garda or the Prison Service knew that people were Covid positive. I will see what I can find out.