Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

I am pleased to introduce the Courts and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2025. I look forward to the debate and discussion here with Members in respect of this legislation. I acknowledge and thank Deputy Carthy, who is the Chairperson of the justice committee, for the fact that the committee has agreed to waive pre-legislative scrutiny of this short Bill. That is the appropriate decision to make, and I thank the members of the committee for agreeing to my request in that regard. I am conscious that the justice committee has a lot on its plate in terms of the legislation coming from my Department which does require pre-legislative scrutiny so I acknowledge publicly the work the committee does in that regard.

The general purpose of this Bill is to increase the number of ordinary judges in four or the five jurisdictions that operate within our courts system. I want to increase the number of judges on the District Court, the Circuit Court, the High Court and the Court of Appeal. There is no proposal in this legislation to increase the number of judges who can sit on the Supreme Court. You will be aware, a Chathaoirligh, that, previously, the judicial planning working group had made a recommendation that the country required 44 new members of the Judiciary. The previous Government agreed with that decision and the current Government will continue with that process of appointment of 44 further judges. It has to be pointed out that the previous Government appointed 24 of those judges. The purpose of this legislation is to ensure we can have 20 more judges available for appointment. Members will also notice, however, that we are seeking the appointment of one extra judge on the Court of Appeal as well. The reason for that is the decision the Government made, agreed to by Mr. Justice Michael McGrath of the Court of Appeal, that he would chair the commission of investigation into the handling of historical child sexual abuse in day and boarding schools. I commend him on agreeing to do that, but it does mean that under this legislation I am seeking a total increase of 21 judges across the various courts.

The Bill marks the second phase of legislation to allow for the recruitment of these additional judges and, as I have indicated, 24 of them have been appointed to date. It is important that we in this House all recognise that the reason we are seeking the appointment of more judges is not in order that people can become judges but in order to facilitate individuals in Ireland who seek access to the administration of justice and who require access to the courts. We know from research and experience that the impact of additional judges can be extremely positive in improving waiting times and cutting the backlogs that existed in our courts for very many years.

The Bill provides for a number of technical amendments related to the Gambling Regulation Act 2024, the Family Courts Act 2024 and the Child Care Act 1991 to allow for the more efficient operation of those Acts when fully commenced.

The general scheme of this Bill was approved by the Government in September 2025, and further consultation was undertaken with various Departments. The results of those discussions have been taken on board in the published Bill. For reasons of urgency, as I said, particularly in the case of the amendments to the Gambling Regulation Act, we sought a waiver in respect of pre-legislative scrutiny. As I said, I thank Deputy Carthy and members of the justice committee for agreeing to that.

Before turning to the main provisions of the Bill, I want to point out the reason it is important that we appoint more judges to be available to hear cases. If we want to ensure that citizens and people seeking access to justice in our courts get access to decisions and judgments more quickly, it is essential that we appoint more judges. Judges are required to sit hearing very many cases, and that is the public-facing part of their job. Sometimes we forget, however, that at the end of a day sitting in court, a judge is required to go off and prepare paperwork, read further paperwork and, for the superior courts, prepare judgments in respect of complex issues that have been raised before them.

I think everyone in the House agrees we are lucky in this country that we have an internationally recognised Judiciary. It is renowned for its integrity as well as its commercial awareness, fairness and sense of impartiality. Anyone who appears before an Irish court can, I think, be relatively satisfied that they will get a fair adjudication in respect of their claim. As Minister for justice, I am very much committed to ensuring that I try to improve access to the justice system for people in Ireland. In order to do that, I have to further modernise the courts. I also have to ensure that the facilities are in place to ensure that justice can be administered in those courts. I am the first Minister for justice to operate the appointment of judges under the new system that was given effect by the Judicial Appointments Commission Act. I have been able to appoint individuals to the District Court, the Circuit Court, the High Court and the Court of Appeal under that new process. I have no previous experience as to how the old system operated but, just from the point of view of informing Members of the House, I am pleased with the way the system that operates at present is operating. I think it is bringing forward individuals who are highly qualified for the purpose of judicial nomination by the Government. As you know, a Chathaoirligh, when a judicial vacancy is advertised, people are allowed to apply for that position. There is then an adjudication of those applications by the Judicial Appointments Commission. It conducts interviews in respect of a number of individuals who have applied and then it sends to me a list of three names, not in any order of preference, from which I have to make a recommendation to the Government that we nominate one of the three persons. If there is more than one vacancy, a greater number of names are provided. If there are two vacancies on a court, I will get five names. I think there are two for every three others that are identified there.

Traditional resourcing is essential to ensuring that the courts can administer justice efficiently and effectively for all our citizens. As I stated to the House at the outset, this Bill will give effect to the judicial party working group's recommendations to increase the number of judges. We have seen already that 24 have been appointed, and the purpose here is to appoint another 21.

In terms of court sittings, we can see that there has been a marked improvement as a result of the appointment of further judges. There has been an increase of 14% in the District Court, an increase of 28% in the Circuit Court and an increase of 18% in the High Court. There are some improvements that are worth noting and that probably do not get sufficient recognition. We have seen a 33% increase in family law cases resolved in the District Court, a 13% increase in criminal cases resolved in the District Court and a 6.5% increase in civil cases resolved in the Circuit Court. Waiting times for civil trials in the Circuit Court have gone down from 50 weeks in 2023 to 31 weeks in 2025. We have also seen that waiting times for criminal appeals in the Circuit Court are down from 33 weeks to 24 weeks and there has been a 5.9% increase in resolved cases in the High Court between 2022 and 2025. It is also important to point out that the waiting time for bail cases in the High Court has decreased from 104 weeks in 2022 to 41 weeks in 2025, and priority custody cases decreased from 70 weeks to 28 weeks over the same period. The increase in the numbers of judges hearing cases is obviously resulting in greater productivity and greater numbers of judgments. Of course, it is also putting pressures on other areas within my Department. Because we now have the Central Criminal Court sitting so much more frequently than was the case previously, more people are finding themselves sentenced to terms of imprisonment for serious offences. The increase in judicial numbers obviously has a knock-on effect on other areas such as prisons.

It is important to note that there are training days for judges who are appointed now across all jurisdictions. That is important to ensure that judges are attuned to the needs of victims and equipped to deal with the increasing complexity in areas of specialisation that is now apparent in the law.

Obviously, the purpose of this House is to enact legislation along with the Seanad and the President. However, every time we create a new law, generally within it we are providing a criminal sanction. Where we do that - or even if we do not provide a criminal sanction but just provide a civil remedy - necessarily we will find ourselves creating more potential disputes because the law has been increased and set down as requiring certain obligations to be performed either in the State sector or in the private sector and that will result in more complaints that the law has not been complied with. That will require more judicial adjudication.

On the provisions of the Bill itself, section 1 is the standard Short Title and the commencement section. Section 2 provides for the repeal of sections 263 and 271 of the Gambling Regulation Act 2024. That is being done for a particular purpose. The purpose was now being given effect to by section 10 of the Bill, which I will refer to presently. Section 2 also provides for the repeal of sections 31 and 33 of the Family Courts Act 2024, which are no longer required. This section also provides for the repeal of various parts of section 80 of the Family Courts Act to account for additional amendments to the Child Care Act 1991 as provided for in section 9 of this Act. Section 3 provides relevant definitions for Part 2 of the Bill.

Section 4 provides for the amendment of paragraph section 1A(2) of the Courts (Establishment and Constitution) Act 1961 and increases the statutory limit on the number of ordinary judges of the Court of Appeal by three, rising from 18 to 21. Section 4 provides regulatory power to increase the number of judges on the Court of Appeal by one judge for operational reasons in line with the same existing powers for the High Court. If it is the case in the future that a Court of Appeal judge is requested by the Government to do some other statutory functions, such as a commission of investigation, it will hopefully not be necessary for us to come back to seek extra judge to be set out in legislation for that judge to be replaced. Section 4 provides a degree of flexibility within the Court of Appeal, and it mirrors the provisions that exists in respect of the High Court.

Section 5 provides the Government the flexibility to appoint a judge permanently to a particular district and allows for a number of unassigned judges that can be assigned temporarily as need arises. It provides for an amendment to section 2(1)(b) of the sixth Schedule of the Courts (Supplemental Provisions) Act 1961, increasing the number of unassigned judges by six, rising from 28 to 34, in line with increases of overall numbers of District Court judges. When somebody is appointed as a District Court judge they may or may not be assigned to a particular district. For certain parts of the country, it is imperative that we have District Court judges assigned to them in areas which are more remote and where it is absolutely necessary to have a judge assigned there to ensure that if something arises and somebody needs to be brought before a court immediately, we have a judge there. However, there are many unassigned judges who perform a role within the District Court and where they go to wherever the workload is required under the direction of the president of the District Court.

Section 6 provides for an amendment to section 9 of the Courts and Court Officers Act 1995 and increases the statutory limit on the number of ordinary judges of the High Court by six, rising from 49 to 55, in line with Government commitments. It is necessary that there are that number of judges in the High Court because of the increasing workload that is being imposed on High Court judges as a result in many respects of the expansion of the legislative framework that exists in this country. There are a huge number of laws being generated each year. Every time we create a law there is a requirement that they be adjudicated on where there is a dispute.

Section 7 provides for the amendment to section 10 of the Courts and Court Officers Act and increases the number of ordinary judges of the Circuit Court by six. That will rise from 45 to 51. Section 8 provides for the amendment to section 10 of the Courts and Court Officers Act 1995 and increases the number of ordinary judges of the District Court by six, rising from 71 to 77, in line with Government commitments. District judges are really the judges who are at the coal face of the administration of justice in Ireland. Most people who find themselves in a situation where they have to encounter the justice system, they do it through an encounter in the District Court, which deals with most of the legal issues that arise for people that require them to before the courts.

Part 3 deals with technical amendments relating to the Child Care Act 1991. Section 9 provides for amendments to section 12 of the Child Care Act to update the District Court to the Family District Court, previously provided for in section 80(b) of the Family Courts Act 2024. Section 9 further provides for amendments to update provisions in the Child Care Act that contain references to "a justice" or to "a judge". This was previously for in section 80 of the Family Courts Act, which is repealed by section 2.

Part 4 deals with amendments relating to the Gambling Regulation Act 2024. It is the case that the reason for the urgency in this legislation is that I want to ensure the legislation in place in respect of gambling regulation can be amended in the slight technical way that it is in this Bill as it is necessary to do that in order that the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland, which is doing great work, can continue to meet the timelines it has set for itself and to even advance further in its licensing of entities under that legislation.

Section 10 provides for the amendment of section 1 of the Street and House Collections Act 1962 to amend the definitions of "collection" and "exempt activity" to refer to the Gambling Regulation Act 2024 rather than the Gaming and Lotteries Act 1956. Section 11 provides for an amendment to section 1(2) of the Gambling Regulation Act, which contains a cross-reference to section 9 of that Act where it should have referred to section 10. Section 10 of that Act permits the Minister to repeal or revoke those statutory provisions underpinning the existing licensing framework for gambling, which are contained in the Totalisator Act 1929, the Betting Act 1931, the Gaming and Lotteries Act 1956 and in related statutory instruments.

It is the authority's intention to begin accepting applications for certain types of betting licences in the coming months. The repeal of both the 1929 and 1931 Acts will ensure that all applications for new betting licences must be made to the authority under the 2024 Act. Not doing so would result in the introduction of a dual licensing system, whereby an applicant for a betting licence could circumvent the enhanced regulatory regime introduced in the 2024 Act by obtaining licences under the 1929 or 1931 Acts. The section also includes further minor technical and drafting amendments to several sections of the 2024 Act.

This Bill is intended to increase the number of judges in the various courts to further ensure the courts can administer justice efficiently and effectively for all our citizens. The enactment of the Bill will lead to further efficiencies in the courts system. It will improve the progress of accessing justice by members of the public. It will provide improved waiting times across all courts. It will provide for more timely judgments and contribute to better clearance rates. It will provide opportunities for training and development for members of the Judiciary. It will also provide an updating of the Gambling Regulation Act, so that the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland can operate as fully as possible to ensure that licences can and are provided for where they meet the statutory test. I will have the opportunity to listen to colleagues and I will respond to what they have to say.

See this speech in context