James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will move to Vote 22, which concerns the Courts Service. I ask Members to put their hands up if they want to come in. I will kick us off with a question. There is a provision for an underspend of €5.2 million on courthouses and offices. As the Minister of State knows, there is a demand throughout the country for the revitalisation of various courthouses, not least Naas courthouse. I made a point on this issue before, as I know Deputy Daly did. We all have our own particular interests with which the Minister will be familiar. Is the underspend because the money is being held back for a capital project in the new year? I am not sure why an underspend is arising.

I will make a second point and the Minister of State can reply to both questions together. He made reference in his speech to various arrangements that were put in place during the Covid pandemic for policing, which probably also apply to courthouses. The committee has previously commented on the situation where trials for the entire Leinster region circuit were being held, for example, in Drogheda and, possibly, Trim courthouses. A similar thing happened in other parts of the country. There was an argument that another option might have been more efficient. While there was social distancing in any venue identified on each circuit, people travelled to that court from around the province each day, sometimes for a case that involved a two-minute application and then they were gone. A whole legal team, including staff and gardaí, had to travel for that and there was expense associated with it. I am not convinced that it was the most efficient use of resources. I submit that perhaps it might have been better to use more local venues, which could equally have managed social distancing. Given where we are with Covid, is centralising all matters to one or two courthouses per circuit, with the attendant travel that goes with it, anticipated to continue or is it expected that situation will begin to fall back and we will return to local courthouses, or local venues will be identified, where social distancing is possible?