Ms Angela Denning:

I fully agree with what has been said about Dolphin House. It is leased accommodation and a former hotel that was built in the 1880s. It is not suitable for the type of work that goes on there. We have five courts. We have increased the number of courts there to five. The space is limited and the atmosphere is very tense. Our staff, with the great support we get from An Garda Síochána, do a remarkable job in conditions that are quite poor.

We did work on this very recently. We have, for example, replaced the lifts, and it is wheelchair accessible. The challenge is that while it is possible to get into the courtroom, it is not possible to get up to the witness box. As well as replacing the lift, we have done work on the roof and the external wall, but this has been done with a view to just keeping the building going until such time as the family courts building is dealt with. We have also included things like distraction places for children, with some toys on the wall and things like that, because we recognise that people need to bring their children with them. We have also launched a 360-degree tour on the website where people go to familiarise themselves with the building in advance. We have done this for Dolphin House, the CCJ, the Four Courts and Áras Uí Dhálaigh in Dublin in order that people can have a look beforehand to figure out where they need to go and to familiarise themselves with the location.

The data side of things is improving, but we had a large number of computer systems that did not talk to each other for a long time. The situation with our data management is now improving dramatically. Over the course of the past year especially, it has improved a great deal. We collect information about the cases but not about the people who bring the cases. This is a gap we will have to resolve across the justice sector rather than just in the Courts Service.

We are putting a great deal of effort into awareness training for our staff. They have really embraced the JAM card training. We have had 1,771 staff participate in this training, which is about creating awareness around allowing people to take an extra minute. This is in order that if they feel uncomfortable, they do not feel uncomfortable asking if they can have a minute. We have the posters placed very prominently, and people can just point to them. We all have it on our lanyards as well to let people know they are supported. It is one area the staff feel has really improved. It has helped them as well with their patience. I know they are under pressure but this is about awareness and understanding where our users are coming from. As I said, people do not come to court for the fun of it. Nobody is in there because they really want to be there; they are there because they must come. They are nervous already and do not know what is happening. Our job is to provide people with information in advance to allow them to be better prepared for when they do come to court, and also to ensure that our staff are better prepared and will just have that bit of extra patience.