Ms Angela Denning:

I will start at the end. I heard Professor Philip Nolan on the radio last Thursday at lunchtime. He said that at the moment, the highest risk is indoors in a crowded setting with people you do not know. Currently, social distancing is 2 m and we have all our courtrooms measured to 2 m and that sets the maximum capacity. If that is reduced, we have all our courts assessed at 1.5 m and 1 m so we can instantly change the sign on the door and we will know how many extra people can be allowed in. Social distancing has had a huge knock-on effect on the operation of the courts.

That said, one of the benefits has been the reduction in the waiting-around time. I should not call it this but it is almost a social contract because if you have a staggered list and you have last-minute adjournments, the judge is sitting idle for perhaps an hour, or half a day, or whatever it might be. There is that unwritten contract there with all the parties that people do as much pre-trial work as possible so as to maximise the benefit out of the court day and I hope that would stay. We have seen a very successful experiment as well with appointments for our public offices. Previously people just came in and queued up for the office with longer queues. We recently launched an online appointments system and that has been very successful. There are almost 1,000 appointments in Dolphin House, which is the District Court family law building in Dublin, in a month. Again, it is just to reduce that tension and the waiting around. Some people do not queue well. By the time you have that done, perhaps you are not in the humour to give your evidence or whatever it might be.

I hope to see staggered lists remain. I hope to see video link remain. I hope to see some level of remote remain. It is very useful for the administrative stuff like call-overs, short matters and matters on affidavit. Then perhaps the actual hearings can be dealt with in person where possible, or with hybrid means. We have seen many hybrid cases. This started with overseas witnesses. We brought the technology in to take evidence from people overseas. I see an increased demand from the likes of medical experts who do not want to leave the hospital and prefer to dial in to give their evidence before going back to their day jobs. I see the future being a mix. That is why we have done the video and the remote court expansion to allow for remote evidence to be given where the judge deems it appropriate and where it suits the case.