Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Unfortunately, Covid-19 has impacted all our lives, and it is no different for the Courts Service, those who work in it and those who avail of its services. It is important to thank those who work in the Courts Service, our legal professions and An Garda Síochána because, while they have had to put a lot of cases on hold particularly since the summer, there have been meetings every week to try to come together to address these backlogs and move things along. As I said, even as far as the summonses are concerned, 97,000 cases have been heard since July, which just shows the huge amount of work that has happened. There are also conversations taking place on expanding the hours, which the Deputy mentioned in his initial comment on sittings of the District Court. An effort is being made to make sure that as many cases are heard as is possible. It is unfortunate that from the middle of March a lot of the non-serious cases, as they were deemed, although they were extremely important to those involved, had to be put on hold and the courts have only been listening to or hearing family law cases, domestic violence cases and other serious and criminal cases. I am glad, however, that most of the hearings in the various courts have resumed and the numbers of cases heard have increased. We will continue to work with the courts in order that they may continue to clear those backlogs as quickly as possible.

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