Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I do not mean today. I make the point that the referendum was held on the same day. It is pointless to set up new courts of appeal and other court structures if Government is going to ignore their decisions. I have raised the matter so many times here that my next course of action is to make a complaint to An Garda Síochána. It is a matter for another day and one with which the new Minister will have to deal.

It is important that we put the enabling legislation under discussion in place. We are told it will be implemented by the autumn of this year. I look forward to that. We must see a programme of work set out regarding cases and the rate of productivity we will see. I understand that it is not a conveyor belt, but we cannot just set up a new court of appeal while continuing to allow cases to be held up and to fail to deliver justice in a timely fashion. My criticism continues to be that we do not see any aspiration with regard to the length of time cases will take and the speed with which people can gain access to the courts. It is very unfair and imprudent in these times of financial hardship and cutbacks that we should just set up our new system, appoint our layer of judicial appointments and have them sitting without a specific workload and timeframe for cases. That is not a personal criticism of the judges. We have no confirmation of what may take place. Others have compared our system with the US and other supreme court systems and said ours is pretty quick by comparison. It is not a good enough answer. We cannot wait three and a half or four years for a case to be determined. We must ensure that the new court of appeal has a proper legislative framework and timelines. There will have to be speedy outcomes.

Section 37 of the Bill states that a judge of the court of appeal may be appointed as a chairperson or deputy chairperson of the Irish Financial Services Appeals Tribunal. It is very important that there is clarity in this regard. We hope there will be independent, fair and proper chairing and oversight of what goes on in those areas.

I also note something that is close to my own heart in section 41, which provides for the amendment of section 50 of the Greyhound Industry Act 1958. Section 41 permits a judge of the court of appeal to be chairman of the appeals committee hearing appeals in relation to the refusal of licences, permits, etc., under the 1958 Act. It is perhaps a pity we could not have had somebody appointed to deal with the musical events dominating the headlines today to sort them out to the satisfaction of society in general.

I look forward to the debate. I hope the legislation makes for speedier and more timely resolutions for parties who go to court. Hopefully they can go to the court of appeal rather than be left wondering what their destiny will be.

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