Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I also welcome the fact that this Bill is before the House. It is important that we provide more judges fairly swiftly and that justice is done and seen to be done in a fairly efficient manner. As other speakers have said, a judge alone is not the justice system but is just part of the overall process. We need to have proper, modern courthouses and the back-up teams that are required to ensure that justice is done.

I know of many cases of people accused of certain things who have been waiting for a long time for justice to be served, one way or the other. It is a huge source of trauma and frustration for people when they cannot get access to court in a timely fashion so that their case can be addressed. In many cases people walk away from justice because they believe it is too much hassle. We end up with situations where people are denied justice because an efficient system is not there for them.

We are coming out of the dark ages in terms of how we treat the judicial system, how it works and what purpose it serves. I welcome the fact that additional judges will be appointed but they will need adequate back-up. The planning system is such that the number of planning applications that go to judicial review is enormous. We talk about building housing and developing our infrastructure but because we do not have an efficient judicial system, these processes are delayed. We need to have specialised courts and expertise within those courts to deal with the likes of planning applications, family breakdown and so on. The courts must be accessible and there must be a full team available to make sure the work is carried out and decisions are made as quickly as possible.

I am going to be a bit parochial now and refer to the courthouse in Tuam, in my constituency, which has been closed for about 25 years. It is a fine building in the town but it is now derelict. Approximately 20 years ago, the Courts Service bought an additional building beside it costing around £600,000, back when pounds were real pounds. Basically, that has been left idle ever since. Meanwhile, the Courts Service is renting space here and there for court services. The courthouse in Tuam is on the Courts Service list of capital projects but it has not moved one iota because the service does not have enough funding to carry out the necessary work. It has been put to me that courthouses are only used for a limited time but it is incredible that we would let a public building in a town fall into dereliction in the context of discussions around vacancy and vacant properties. The vacant property tax should be levied on whoever owns that building, whether it is the local authority or the Courts Service. It is a fine building but it is currently a stain on the landscape of the town. I ask the Minister of State to have a look at this. The Office of Public Works, OPW, was due to do some preparatory work on the building back in 2016 or 2017 but it has not advanced one iota since. The building itself is listed but if the Courts Service engages with Galway County Council, it might find a solution to the problem, put a proper courthouse in place and bring a public building back to life. Perhaps other uses could be found for it but we are wasting valuable money. Despite all of the billions we are getting in, we are wasting money all of the time. We have been spending a lot of money on rent for the last 20 years and we spent money on purchasing an additional site. I estimate that well over €1 million has been spent and that will be wasted if this project is not done in an efficient manner. We need to bring a bit of pride back into our services.

I will not linger further, other than to say that we need more judges in their own right and we also need to have the teams with them. It is important to recognise that the Minister of State is making progress and I support him with this Bill.

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