Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Labour Party welcomes this legislation, which is coming from the High Court ruling on court presenters. I am taken by the letter written by the Minister, Deputy McEntee, to the Ceann Comhairle. She states that on a single day, 2 June, more than 2,131 cases were before the District Court throughout the country. Notwithstanding contingency measures put in place, hundreds of cases had to be adjourned. In one court alone, 130 cases had to be adjourned, which has caused significant distress and upset to victims and accused persons. These cases will be added to the already lengthy backlog of cases arising from Covid disruption. Clearly, the court presenter system, without any legislative underpinning, was holding the District Court system together. If it is struck down by the High Court, the legislative body of the Oireachtas then needs to act. The Government is acting and we support that action.

I do not necessarily agree, however, with the Minister's suggestion that delays are purely down to Covid. Anybody who works in the system will attest to the fact there is a lack of judges. That has to be addressed. It is part of the issue that is leading to such delays in our District Court system. It is slightly alarming that a ruling like this can shine a light on a practice that is holding the District Court system together and maintain that it does not have legislative underpinning. Are the Office of the Attorney General and the Department of Justice analysing our systems so there is no other issue that may come to light in future that could be struck down by the High Court? It is important there is robust analysis of how our system of justice operates. If something so fundamental to how a case proceeds through a District Court process can be identified by a High Court judge as not having legislative underpinning, is there anything else? As a result of this judgment, is the Government, the Office of the Attorney General, the Department of Justice or any agency conducting a robust analysis of how the District Court operates so that we do not find ourselves in this situation again? It does not reflect well on us as an Oireachtas that such legislation has to come before us without pre-legislative scrutiny and has to be rushed through the Houses so quickly. If someone is in front of a District Court, this may be his or her only chance to get a level of justice, be that person an accused person or somebody on the other side of the issue. It would cause me and, I am sure, the Minister and the Government, disquiet that such a fundamental element of how this is run could be deemed to be without a legislative underpinning. The lack of judges is part of the problem. We need a robust analysis of how our District Court system is operating.

I am heartened by the words of Deputy Ó Murchú when he speaks to how drug offences are dealt with. I feel that across the Oireachtas we have potential for great change here. As the Deputy said, there is a citizens' assembly due in the new year on the issue of drugs. Those who work in this area know a massive number of the drug possession cases that have come before our courts do not need to be there at all. Some 70% of drug cases are for possession for personal use. The vast majority of cases are against people who are addicted to something or who use something. In other jurisdictions, they are funnelled through a very different path. We talk about harm reduction and using the health system primarily, not the courts system. If the Minister takes a trip to the drug court, which has a certain level of success, she will observe a courtroom full of sick people. They should not be sitting in a courtroom looking at a judge. Those who have an addiction fundamentally do not belong in a courtroom interacting with the criminal justice system, gardaí and judges. That is not where they should be. The citizens' assembly, as indicated by Deputy Ó Murchú, is the right forum for us to analyse properly how other jurisdictions are dealing with this issue. I refer to Portugal and various states in America. We should take issues of personal use and addiction out of our courts system. They do not belong there. We need to find another mechanism for dealing with them. If we were to do that, we would free up a lot of court time and Garda time that could be spent tackling the pushers, the gangs and the industry rather than the victims, who are the ones inevitably in front of the courts.

We appreciate the Government had to act and is acting. The Minister is bringing forward legislation without pre-legislative scrutiny because there is a time issue and that is fair enough. However, the Government has to recognise that if a High Court judge has struck down something so fundamental to the operation of our courts system, what else is there? What else could there be? Are there other legal loopholes that need to be strengthened so we do not find ourselves in this position again? If we are back here again in six months' time because a High Court judge sees something else that does not have a legal underpinning, it is not going to reflect well on us at all.

On the day-to-day operation of a court, I encourage the Minister to go down to the drug court or any court. For any Member of the Oireachtas or member of the public who is not familiar with what happens there, whenever I have taken the opportunity to witness it at first hand, it is really striking how those who are in the accused position need an awful lot more help, compassion, understanding, medical intervention and counselling than is being afforded to them. Many of these cases could be dealt with in a very different way. Other jurisdictions that have dealt with it in a different way have seen the number of drug cases and overdoses collapse. They have seen the number of people in heroin dependency programmes collapse as well. That is my main point. Let us not be here again because of something else we overlooked. Let us deal with the lack of judges, because it is leading to delays within the courts system.

5 o’clock

If we have the opportunity and if there is goodwill, as Deputy Ó Murchú indicated, across the parties in this House to deal with the issue of drug offences differently, we will have a radically reformed courts system and a much better way to empower somebody with a drug use or addiction issue. As any observer knows, the last person to whom somebody with a drug use or addiction issue needs to be talking is a garda or judge. I will leave it at that.

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