Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I do not want to delay this, but I would like to respond to Deputy O'Keeffe. The Courts Service is a unique body. It is mainly run by the Judiciary and it is independent of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. It is responsible for servicing the courts system, for getting the databases together, for producing annual reports and for collating statistics. That is its function.

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