Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

No, Deputy. It is not an apology. The statement I have just made is for the record of the House because it is important that when one has an opportunity to talk about the Judiciary without being interrupted, without being misquoted and without being selectively quoted, that one tells the truth.

In the case of the Circuit Court, cases are becoming more complex and as a consequence they are lengthier. The available judges are allocated by the President of the Circuit Court in such a way as to minimise backlogs in criminal cases. However, this has a knock-on effect on civil and family law business. As a result, cases in some circuits are taking up to two years to reach court and this is not acceptable. The workload of the District Court is also becoming more complex and lengthy. In particular, additional judges are required in order to fully implement the provisions of the Children Act 2001, which the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, is implementing in full. The population of the State is increasing, Garda numbers are at an all-time high and we are living through a period of economic prosperity. All of these factors impact on the courts in their own way.

I think it appropriate at this stage to make some comments on the courts system. The establishment of the Courts Service as an independent agency in 1999 represented the most radical re-organisation of court services since the foundation of the State. The mission statement of the agency is "to manage the courts, support the judiciary and provide a high-quality and professional service to all the courts". There is probably general agreement that the Courts Service is fulfilling this task admirably.

Apart from judicial salaries which are paid from the central fund, I am responsible for ensuring the service is adequately funded and, in this regard, €102.8 million has been provided in 2007 for the Courts Service. This represents a 20% increase on 2006. Since its foundation, the service has made great progress in improving the stock of courthouses around the country. Many of our county town courthouses have been refurbished and other major upgrading works have been completed in Cork, Limerick, Dundalk and Castlebar. Some county courthouses remain to be refurbished but the courthouse estate has been fantastically refurbished and some are magnificent buildings which are a source of pride to their local communities. The allocation for capital works on courthouses for this year stands at €29.6 million, which is €10 million more than the previous year. Courthouse refurbishment projects due for completion this year include the magnificent courthouse at Nenagh, the courthouses in Tullamore, Fermoy, Thurles and a new courthouse at Blanchardstown. In addition, a maintenance fund for courthouse repairs, comprising €11.7 million, is allocated for 2007. This fund includes €4 million for minor works and is designed to ensure our courthouse stock is maintained in good condition in keeping with its role as the public expression of the importance of the administration of justice in the State.

A new criminal courts complex in Dublin will be the first PPP project undertaken in the justice family. The new state-of-the-art complex will be constructed on a State-owned site in Parkgate Street adjacent to Heuston railway station. It will be developed in accordance with best practice on similar projects elsewhere. The new complex is due to be completed in 2009. The building will be designed to concentrate all central Dublin criminal business in one serviced location. This will involve the transfer of courts and administrative offices from three jurisdictions, District Court, Circuit Court and Central Criminal Court, to the new facility. The new complex will contain an underground point of entry for prisoners, appropriately equipped holding cells, victim support facilities, separate jury and witness facilities, press and media centre, consultation and waiting areas and cafeteria. The centralising of all criminal business in the new complex will also mean the Four Courts complex will be freed up for civil business. Approval has been given to the Courts Service to proceed with nine other greenfield court projects, by way of the PPP system, as part of a new envelope of €50 million for such projects over the next two years. These include full District and Circuit Court services for locations nationwide. The Courts Service will use a new investment methodology known as bundling. This approach allows the marketplace a flexibility to bid for group or individual schemes, generating best value for the taxpayer and early delivery.

I hope the appointment of additional judges will also assist in the fight against organised crime. As Deputies will be aware, last December I announced a comprehensive package of measures to deal with this fight. I will set out the components of this package which includes a further increase of 1,000 in the strength of the Garda Síochána to bring the total up to 15,000 over the next three years; sanction for 300 additional civilian administrative support posts for the Garda Síochána; the recruitment of seven senior civilian posts recommended in the recent reports from Kathleen O'Toole and Senator Maurice Hayes; an increase in the retirement age for gardaí, sergeants and inspectors from 57 to 60 years; a proportionate increase in the targeted strength of the Garda Reserve from 900 to 1,500; and increased staffing for the Forensic Science Laboratory, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Courts Service. I wish to emphasise there will be no limit on the funds available for the witness protection programme. Unprecedented resources have been devoted in recent years to the criminal justice system and these measures follow from this policy. These have been accompanied by a comprehensive programme of modernisation and reform.

I will bring before the House in the near future a package of proposals to specifically counter the gangland and drug culture. I will deal with the details at a later stage. The copies of my script which have been supplied to Deputies carry this information.

Sentencing is, of course, a complex matter and there are many variable factors to be taken into account in each individual case. However, in order to address the issue, the board of the Courts Service established a steering committee in October 2004 to plan for and provide a system of information on sentencing. The initiative of the board is designed to provide a systemic form of information as a reference point for judges. The terms of reference are to plan for and provide information on sentencing. The membership of the committee is as follows: Mrs. Justice Susan Denham, chairperson; Mr. Justice Kevin O'Higgins; Mr. Justice Esmond Smyth; Judge Miriam Malone, and Professor Tom O'Malley.

The steering committee has reviewed sentencing systems around the world and decided to establish a pilot project in the Circuit Court in Dublin. The objectives of the project are, first, to identify criteria and other information employed by the Judiciary in sentencing for particular offence types in criminal proceedings; second, to record and retrieve such information in individual cases; third, to design and develop a database to store the information retrieved and enable its retrieval in accordance with various search criteria; fourth, to share or disseminate the information, utilising information and communications technology, via a judges' intranet or other means, and, fifth, to assemble appropriate material on sentencing for a bench book and website. Briefing meetings to explain the project have been held with the judges of the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court and court registrars involved in the initial phase of the pilot project.

A pilot project commenced in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in January. I understand two researchers have begun to collect and collate information on sentencing outcomes in cases on indictment in designated courts in accordance with criteria specified by the committee. It is anticipated the pilot project will run for an eight-week period and that it will be evaluated prior to a further pilot project.

Apart from the pilot project, one must not ignore the current position which is that the law enables a judge to exercise his or her discretion, within the maximum penalty, by reference to the conclusions he or she has reached after trying the case, hearing all the evidence and assessing the culpability and circumstances of the accused. Our system of recruitment to all levels of the Judiciary is based on the concept of bringing in experienced and trained legal practitioners. Consequently, judges, on appointment, have a wide knowledge of the law and its application.

Work on the scheme of the judicial council Bill is at an advanced stage of development in my Department and I expect to be in a position to bring it to Government for approval early this year. The Bill will establish a judicial council with responsibility for a number of matters. Among these, the council will devise a code of ethics and investigate complaints about judicial misbehaviour. An important feature of the disciplinary process is that lay people, that is, people who are not judges or lawyers, will be involved in the process. The council will also be responsible for judicial education and training and the exchange of information among judges on such matters as sentencing.

The Bill will build on the report of the committee on judicial conduct and ethics, chaired by the former Chief Justice, Mr. Ronan Keane. That report recognised the need for a procedure to deal with complaints of judicial misconduct which, while serious, might not warrant the ultimate sanction of impeachment by the Oireachtas. Consultations on the proposed Bill have, as is usual, taken place with the Office of the Attorney General. I have also considered it prudent, given the nature of the subject, to consult the Chief Justice. These consultations are ongoing and I hope they will conclude quickly. When the scheme of the Bill has been approved by Government, I intend to make it available to the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights. Any views that may emerge from that committee can be taken into account during the drafting of the Bill which will be proceeding at the same time.

There is little use in having extra judges and a well resourced courts system if many people are, in effect, priced out of the legal process. The issue of legal costs is one which I have always believed was worthy of investigation. Deputy Cassidy, as Chairman, called me before the Joint Committee on Enterprise and Small Business on one occasion to ask me what I proposed to do in this regard. On foot of that hearing, I established the legal costs working group, chaired by Mr. Paul Haran, a retired senior civil servant, to examine the issue.

There are three main strands to that group's report. First, it recommends the following: a legal costs regulatory body to formulate recoverable cost guidelines based on an assessment of the amount of work reasonably required to be done in typical cases; a simplified assessment process, based on the recoverable cost guidelines prescribed by the regulatory body, to be carried out by a legal costs assessment office where legal bills are disputed; and, where assessments are appealed, an appeals process conducted by an appeals adjudicator. Second, the report calls for significant improvements to be made in the quality and quantity of the information that a solicitor is required to provide for clients and the manner in which it is to be supplied. Third, the report recommends a number of legislative and procedural changes to reduce delays in court hearings and generally designed to expedite the legal process.

After I secured the Government's endorsement of the report's recommendations, I established an expert group, chaired by the accountant, Mr. Desmond Miller, to advise me on the implementation of the report's recommendations. I have now received the implementation advisory group's report and will be making a further announcement on it in the next couple of weeks. I have no doubt that once the new costs arrangements have been put in place, the market for civil legal services will become more predictable, consistent and transparent to consumers. This will lead to the market becoming more economic, as people will be in a position to shop around and exert some downward pressure on legal costs and bills presented to them. This transparency will also make it easier for consumers to recognise competitive prices for the services they require.

Before turning to the provisions of the Bill, I want to mention what I consider to be an exciting development. The Courts Service recently launched its first report on family law proceedings, Family Law Matters. This will be the first in a series of reports which are a Courts Service initiative to shine a light on the family courts and dispel myths and misunderstandings which may arise from an historical lack of information in this very relevant and human arena of law. This initiative was permitted by a change to the in camera rule which I introduced in legislation earlier in this Dáil.

Dr. Carol Coulter was engaged to carry out the reporting of family law on a pilot basis. The staff of the service provided tremendous assistance and information for her in producing this report for the public. The report provides information under three headings: reports, trends and statistics, and judgments. The reports are newspaper-style records of what happened in a bundle of cases across the country. The identity of participants is totally protected and the area of law examined is explained in accessible and useable language. I congratulate Dr. Coulter on the quality of that work and the Courts Service for the way in which it has supported her work.

The Bill is a simple one. Section 1 deals with definitions. Section 2 increases the number of High Court judges from 31 to not more than 35, an increase of four. Section 3 deals with Circuit Court judges and increases their number to 37, an increase of four. Section 4 provides that the number of judges of the District Court, in addition to the President of the District Court, shall be not more than 60, an increase of six. Section 5 is a technical provision which, simply put, makes the additional judges of the District Court unassigned judges rather than assigning them to particular districts. As such, the six additional judges can be allocated by the President of the District Court as she sees fit. Section 6 sets out the Short Title and collective citation. Given the size of the Bill, there is little more I can say about its text.

I hope the Bill will command cross-party support. It is not contentious; it provides for additional judges and will assist in reducing delays in the courts and generally speed up the judicial process. It complements the measures being taken in regard to organised crime. It will result, I hope, in earlier trials and bring the level of judicial resources to a record high. In the circumstances I recommend it to the House.

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