Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)

The Labour Party will support the Bill and we hope we can expedite it through the Houses. The Bill is based on the recommendations of the judicial planning working group. This is phase 2 of the recommendations, dealing with the addition of 21 judges. I have to acknowledge the improvements to the various different courts. The Minister read them into the record of the Dáil and I will not repeat them, but they need to be acknowledged. Nevertheless, the Council of Europe report has said that we are still way below the required volume of judges required when compared with our European colleagues, so we still have a bit of work to do on this. While the Bill is a step in the right direction, we will have to go again. We will have to see how the Bill works.

The spending per inhabitant on the courts in our jurisdiction is significantly less than in others. It takes 1.5 times longer for the various courts to sit. While acknowledging that the timescales in many of the courts have reduced and many cases have been expedited, there are still issues.

In relation to the issues that have been outlined by other colleagues regarding sexual crimes, etc., we really need see how we can itemise these to bring them forward and deal with them in a quicker and more compassionate way. I would be willing to work with the Minister on that. I do not think there is a monopoly of ideas on it. I welcome the fact a colleague from Sinn Féin put forward a proposal that will certainly go through as well. We all need to look at every angle we can in this regard.

I will talk a little bit about resources and the courthouses. Where are we in relation to resources in the courts? The Minister might in his reply outline the staffing levels. If he has any updated statistics on staffing levels across the courts, they would be welcome. There have been a number of issues regarding various courthouses, some of which are in my own county, and the condition of courthouses, etc. What is the plan for working with the Office of Public Works, OPW, in relation to those? The Minister might give us some information on that as well.

I want to raise a couple of issues in relation to An Garda Síochána and its workings in the courts. Earlier in the year, when the Minister was not long in the job, he spoke about hoping to make a number of changes with regard to how An Garda Síochána was going to work in the courts. The Future of Policing in Ireland report had a number of recommendations in this regard, some of which were accepted and some of which were not. I actually did not have much issue with them not being accepted. However, we need to look at how we can free up An Garda Síochána. I presume, given the issues we have with recruitment and retention and numbers in An Garda Síochána, that the Minister agrees with me on this. We need to look at how we are going to free up An Garda Síochána more within the courts.

I was very taken with what the Minister said - it must be well over six months ago now, from memory - about the use of digitisation and documentation and how we were going to use digitisation on various charge sheets, bench warrants and a whole range of other things. Where are we in relation to that? Again, the Minister might update us on that. I would be hugely supportive of this. I know a number of gardaí who have worked in the Garda presenter role in the courts. As the Minister knows, there have been issues with that, which have been outlined by certain judges, and we were in no man's land for a while in relation to this. Where are we at as regards how we can look at freeing up An Garda Síochána in the courts? What is the future of the Garda presenter role? Are we moving towards digitisation? Do we need to bring in legislation for how we deal with this? I would say it is a possibility that we would. It is a strong possibility that we will have to do so because otherwise people would be at the mercy of certain courts and certain judges making their own decisions on it under the current legislation as laid down. The Minister might come back to us on that. I would like to know some figures in relation to the resources in the courts. I would like to know about any works through the OPW. In particular, I would like to see where we are going with regard to freeing up gardaí, digitisation, the future role of An Garda Síochána and court presenters and all of that. All in all, the Labour Party will be very much supporting this Bill and looking for its speedy introduction.

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