Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I do not want any case to move like a ping-pong ball between two courts with both refusing it, which would fly in the face of everybody's concept of justice. For instance, at the moment cases are transferred between geographical locations under criminal justice law. It is not necessary to apply in Dublin to receive a case if it is to be moved from Donegal. It is generally presumed that the courts have a mutual respect for each other's decisions and if a court in Donegal were to decide to transfer a criminal case for trial in Dublin, a court in Dublin will not send it back on the basis that it was not asked. These decisions are not made lightly and members of the Judiciary respect each other's decisions. In these cases we do not have a regulator who arbitrates between two judges neither of whom wants to deal with the case. In general such a case is dealt with on a commonsense basis. If one court concludes it is in the interests of justice that it should not deal with a case and that another court should, all relevant issues would be ventilated before the first court and the case would not go into limbo between the two courts.

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