Seán Ardagh (Dublin South Central, Fianna Fail)

The commission has two strategies for achieving its objective of sentencing consistency, namely, providing judicial officers with access to the sentencing information system — a computerised sentencing database — and undertaking and disseminating original research and statistical analysis on aspects of sentencing and other topics of assistance to sentencers.

I will deal with the Courts Service board and its information technology system, in particular the criminal case management system. It may be asked whether the Judiciary supports such a system, so I will read what the Chief Justice, Mr. John Murray, said: "The increasing demands made upon our legal system, whether manifested in the volume and level of complexity of proceedings initiated or in the expectations of the legal profession and litigating public, require that the service equip itself to discharge its functions by drawing upon the best management practices, availing of the latest technologies".

The board has a criminal case management system, which had only been operational in Dublin and Limerick District Courts offices but was rolled out nationwide to 41 separate offices in 2005. The exercise represented the largest single implementation of a strategic business application in the history of the Irish courts system. The system can track the whole life cycle of a criminal or road traffic case, which means that an integrated electronic record is now available in respect of 95% of all criminal cases nationwide. That was not acknowledged in recent contributions to this debate.

The system will also enable the service to introduce an automated penalty points system to meet its commitment to Government on the implementation of penalty points. It was necessary to ensure compatibility between the criminal case management system and the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government driver licensing system so that the details of penalty point convictions could be electronically transferred to the Department for further processing. In addition, as part of a pilot project commenced during the year, details of summons applications from the Garda Síochána are electronically received and details of hearing dates electronically allocated. The installation of the criminal case management system represents a major challenge for the service. It included the introduction of a significant business change programme, as well as the training of almost 300 staff. The exercise was completed on time and within a demanding six-month period.

It is necessary to integrate the system not just with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and the Garda PULSE system but also with the prison system and the probation service, and to have it fully on-line so that it is acceptable to all who require access to it.

It is very interesting to see some of the figures from the criminal case management system. Much of what the Bill proposes is already in place. The 2004 figures report 312,152 summary cases in the District Court. As I said, the two areas originally on the system were Dublin and Limerick. Some 24% of assault and public order offences in Dublin were dismissed, whereas in Limerick the figure was only 9%. In Dublin, of the total number of assault and public order cases dealt with, 702, or 10%, were dealt with by the poor box system. In Limerick none was dealt with by the poor box. I do not know whether the people of Dublin are more affluent than the people of Limerick but I doubt it. Some 32% of drug offences dealt with in Limerick resulted in fines, as against 14% of drug offences in Dublin, which suggests Limerick has more affluent drug offenders. Some 15% of drug offences in Dublin were dismissed, as against only 4% in Limerick.

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