Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

I agree with the amendment, which is sensible and accords with the practical situation. Given the Minister's comments on personal service as opposed to service by way of registered post, are statistics available to the Courts Service or the Department with regard to service of documents? I would have thought that at this stage the vast majority of documentation is served by way of registered post. Indeed, applications for substituted service usually give rise to a situation where service is made by ordinary prepaid post rather than by personal service.

Is it the case that a person so designated may in effect act as an appropriate or designated person in any part of the country? What we are doing in this instance is removing the boundaries for the service of different areas. As I understand it, servers were designated persons within the District Court or Circuit Court rules and were defined within court boundaries. From a reading of the amendment, it appears that any document can be served in any area at any time by any person involved. In effect, we are removing the constraints that were imposed by the court rules, which gave rise to personal service within areas or within boundaries. While Circuit Court boundaries, in country areas if not in the city, would appear to accord with county boundaries, there is a totally different designation of boundaries in District Court areas. I take it we are removing that designation. If so, I welcome it.

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