Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

This is a good amendment. Particularly so this year, but it would be very difficult to argue that a period of 12 months would be sufficient in any circumstances. One cannot ignore Covid. It is unlikely that the courts will be back functioning properly until the end of the year at the earliest. That will only leave months to see if this is working with a very small number of cases arising to allow us to see what problems might arise. For that reason alone, this is a good amendment. It will take time before it is signed and procedures are put in place.

It should be the sponsoring Department that takes responsibility. As matters stand, annual reports would be very useful in the context of timetabling reviews. That is where the attention will be on watching the outworkings of things that were intended in a particular way and how it happens in practice in the courts. Often when we do something in theory, the practice it is very different. Some of that is because we tend to take a short-term approach to matters such as regulatory impact assessments. We need to look not only at the legislation but at how it is likely to be followed through on and whether the organisations or institutions, in this case the courts, have the mechanisms in place to allow it to work as intended, for instance if there is a need for more judges or there is a delay in the courts. It is a good amendment and I am persuaded to support it.

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