Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the witnesses for their testimony and submissions. With all due respect, I did hope to see a lot more concrete proposals and insights into people. When I think of courts services and engagement with users of the court, I do not only think of victims and witnesses, which seemed to be a common theme throughout the submissions. Users are a much wider group than that. There are families, for example. There was no mention of gender, mental health, invisible disabilities or autism. The geographical location is just one part of access to justice.

I am interested in getting an insight from the Courts Service and the Bar Council. The Bar Council is inputting into what the courts look like and access to particular rooms. Does the Bar Council have an impact assessment of the people who require its services and what their needs are? What does the Bar Council bring to the table as people who have a real input into what the Courts Service or courthouses look like? Is its focus mainly about its members or the practitioners or does it take into account the disabilities and invisible disabilities of people that require those members' services? I ask the Bar Council to speak to that and perhaps the Courts Service could speak to both the vision for people in general and everything from language, gender, culture, inaccessible legal language for people with invisible disabilities and their ability to take instruction. For example, what do you put through the machine at the entrance, in terms of the airport-style security and the fear that comes with that?

They are some of the issues I would like to have seen addressed but perhaps that is for a different session with the groups that use the service regularly. I would like to hear a little bit more about that and whether the Bar Council does any assessment of the needs of people who require its services within the courtroom when inputting into the structures.