Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am looking at the clock and it is running down on me. I want to ask a question about county registrars. I tabled a couple of parliamentary questions on this matter. The clue is in the name. We should have at least 26 country registrars. I am of the view that the work they do is effective. We know their role in the count centres, which is where most politicians run into a county registrar. They also have important roles in triaging court cases. They are very effective in speeding up the utilisation of our courts system. There was a retrenchment in their number in the financial downturn. We reduced the number to 16 and increased it again to 17. We only have 14 of those positions filled as per the latest information I have. I cannot see how these positions would be an enormous cost in the greater context of a departmental spend. Does Ms McPhillips have a view on the value-for-money proposition a county registrar represents?