Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

As I stated in my opening comments it is a pity we are only dealing with the courts and the appointment of court officers, namely, judges. The referendum promised on the five proposals from the Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform with special responsibility for children will have implications. It is a pity account was not taken of it in this short Bill. Mandatory provision could have been made for court accompanying services, screening and video linking for children and other vulnerable witnesses. It could also have examined having a commissioner such as in Scotland to take evidence from vulnerable child witnesses.

Some courts cannot physically cope with the level of cases and the number of people going through. We need additional and modern courts and extra facilities. If the number of Circuit Court judges is being increased extra space must be found. A building programme has been in place but it has not gone far enough or fast enough to deal with the level of backlog in the courts system.

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