Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his presentation. There is no doubt but that this Bill is welcome. We had called for additional judges because from speaking to practitioners, guards and many others, it is a significant issue. In the Dublin Circuit Court, for example, trial dates for February and March 2025 were given out earlier this year. The only exception would be if a child was involved or if the accused was in custody. In the Central Criminal Court, trial dates have varied. In severe cases, judges have tried to assign a date within nine months and to use case management, but in other cases, there are delays of 15 to 18 months from when a case enters the list. That is clearly not acceptable to anyone.

The judicial review list on the civil side of the High Court is very slow. It might take 12 months to get a hearing date for a one- or two-day case. Once the case is heard, the judge could take weeks or months to deliver judgment because there is practically no time available to him or her out of court to write a judgment.

I heard the proposals of the Minister of State.

Sometimes it sounds like a great idea to have judges in the Circuit Court sitting every day of the week. In practice that may or may not be a good idea. If it is to be considered I am sure that everything will be taken in the round.

Proposals will be considered about restructuring the District Court and reviewing Circuit Court geographical areas. I would guard against too much centralisation. There is the old maxim of justice being done and being seen to be done; it should be seen to be done out in the communities also. A witness to a road traffic accident in Castlemaine, County Kerry who is asked to go to court to be a witness in that case will have a round trip of about 100 km to go to Cahersiveen District Court to give evidence in that case because other closer courts such as the courts in Killorglin and Castleisland have been closed down.

During my relatively short time in the courts around Kerry, about ten different District Court sittings were closed. Castleisland court was closed when Kerry County Council built a specific courthouse building for use by the Courts Service, a building which now houses water services. However, it was completely ignored and all of the services were sent to Tralee and in the overall budget buttons were saved. However, all the extra Castleisland cases put into Tralee are adding to the already long list in that court. It might seem like a great cost-saving measure in closing one court, but the overall benefit is not good. We do not want judges with very long lists. The stress of dealing with a long list of hearings is not beneficial.

The Bill stems from the important report of the judicial planning working group. The Courts Service has been struggling severely for some time, as I have indicated. The pandemic exposed these struggles also. For years the justice system has been deprived of the resources and investment it needs. Many victims and ordinary plaintiffs have been forced to wait for long periods as the courts struggle to keep on top of caseloads. At the weekend I attended a conference on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. Many of the workers from in midlands and around Athlone stressed the difficulty and the delays for vulnerable women in accessing justice in the courts. Maybe we can learn from what happened in England where, for example, cases for maintenance are sent to a different type of tribunal outside of the court system. There have also been some difficulties over there with that system and complaints about it. However, we can learn from what happened there rather than having massive lists of family cases.

It is significant that the Government has to bring forward this legislation which entitles those affected by delays in criminal trials to compensation. This is at the instigation of the Council of Europe. It is significant that international obligations seem to be steering policy in this area more than an inherent sense of doing the right thing. Justice delayed is justice denied. It is worrying that the delays are down to how the courts have been resourced and operated. One of the European Commissioners appeared in Leinster House a few months ago berating Ireland in a Commission report over the number of judges per head of population. Delays in many areas of law, especially family cases, are becoming intolerable. Wait times of up to 24 months are not unheard of and that can be a lifetime for vulnerable people. The European Commission report, as I mentioned, ranked Ireland as the worst country in Europe for judicial resourcing. Its report stated that we had 3.27 judges per 100,000 people in 2020 which is way below the European average of 17.6 judges. This obviously has real impacts on the access to justice for ordinary people. It also has an impact on economic competitiveness. Sectors such as technology and financial services make up a large part of our economy now and legal services are incredibly important to ensure the smooth functioning of the economy.

Of course, the Bill is a step in right direction and we will be supporting it. However, the increase, while in line with recommendation of the working group, will still leave us below the European average in respect of judges per capita, as the report of the judicial planning group will admit. Increasing resources is one part of the picture and other moves such as judicial resources planning model and more flexible working arrangements are positive.

It is worth looking at other aspects of the report which are not necessarily included in the Bill and placing them on the record here so that the Government is held to account. An OECD study was commissioned specifically to inform the report and it found the judicial system has shortfalls along with limited efficiency of court operations and case management capacity. It suggests the likely number needed was between certain points in that range in respect of total numbers between 361 and 108 extra judges. The Minister of State has indicated that there are appointments, but they are only one part of the picture. We look forward to a more detailed roadmap and I think he has outlined the initial proposals for 2023 and for next year.

As the Minister of State indicated in his opening statement, the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act, the establishment of the environment and planning court and family court will also be considered. We may need more regulatory impact assessments when it comes to introducing Bills in the future as the number of required judges and their skillssets will be shaped by developments such as the one the report mentions. A phased recruitment of judges is also welcomed as is actual physical capacity and available supports that are in short supply in many locations often due to the fact that many courts especially in rural areas have been closed.

I will quote from one of the reports about the five-day working week as a standard across jurisdictions, greater powers in support for court presidents and better data to support it in the District Court and Circuit Court areas. This needs to be married with the independence of the courts which are run by judges as they see fit. The review of Circuit Court and District Court areas must bear in mind access to justice for isolated rural areas. Kerry has three peninsulas and a high degree of peripherality.

I have frequently mentioned the issue of Tralee courthouse. The proposal is still to close the current courthouse, which has been there since the days of Daniel O'Connell, and to build a new one. The Courts Service completely ruled out any other proposals to use the existing building which would have been better for a number of reasons, not least to keep the services where people are used to them being, helping the whole of the town centre to improve itself and even the carbon footprint in constructing a new courthouse. I am not sure if the transfer from Kerry County Council to the Courts Service has gone through yet. I do not think it is too late to review and revise that decision, to talk to neighbouring landowners such as An Post to keep a proper court service on Ash Street in the middle of the town where it has been for 170 years since it was constructed from a quarry in the centre of town. However, the Courts Service had plans for all the different towns around the country and it seems that the easy option has been taken to use the brownfield site.

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