Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

I remind the Minister that according to the McCarthy report the Government has the capacity to save €23.2 million in the area of "management of the courts and supporting the Judiciary". Leaving aside the Garda stations, to which we can return, with regard to managing the courts and their administration, the McCarthy report proposes reducing the numbers of county registrars from 26 to 15, saving €2 million and we have not heard the Minister on this. It proposes rationalising the District and Circuit Court network and introducing new measures to deliver greater efficiencies, saving €2 million; abolishing the grade of tipstaff in the courts, saving €2.5 million; reducing surplus security personnel at the Four Courts, saving €2 million; reviewing the charging system for civil and commercial courts, saving €5 million; reducing the non-pay baseline of Civil Service officers under the courts programme, saving €1.3 million; and introducing a limited means testing system for criminal legal aid, saving €8.4 million.

It is more than two months since these proposals were placed in the public domain. I invite the Minister to comment on them in specific ways, although perhaps not in the manner in which his ministerial colleagues have rushed to distance themselves from the McCarthy report. He should go on record on these court efficiencies.

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