Ms Angela Denning:

For justice systems worldwide, Covid has been a massive experiment. That sounds like a glib statement to make but it is true. It is my intention to maintain all the good lessons we learned during Covid and bin poorer practices.

On the movement of prisoners, we are doing a pilot with Garda stations in Dublin so that evidence can be taken directly from Garda stations to reduce further the time gardaí spend away from the Garda station. The reduced movement of prisoners around the country helped to keep Covid out of prisons. Nobody considered the disruption to prison life caused by moving a prisoner from a prison down the country to Cloverhill Prison on the night before a hearing in the Criminal Courts of Justice. There have been significant improvements in that regard and the Courts Service and, I believe, the Prison Service would like to keep these for the future.