Michelle Mulherin (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I appreciate this Topical Issue being selected for debate.

I am very concerned at the apparent policy of centralisation of court services being pursued by the Courts Service and its buildings sub-committee. The most recent decision by the board on 1 July will see two further courthouses being closed in County Mayo, in Swinford and Ballyhaunis, bringing to ten the number of courthouses closed in the county since 2000. The administration of these courts and the court sittings are being transferred centrally to the courthouse in Castlebar for the stated reason that there are better facilities in Castlebar courthouse and there is a holding cell there. If these are the criteria - I understand there are several other items which I will address - all District Courts and all courthouses in County Mayo will shut down and all of the work will be transferred to Castlebar where the investment has been made in the courthouse.

What is the State saving? In Ballyhaunis and Swinford there are 24 hour Garda stations, but now gardaí will be required to travel a distance to Castlebar and spend their time, a day perhaps, sitting around the District Court and will then have to travel some distance back to their towns. They will not be able to attend to their policing duties as easily or readily as if they were attending the District Court in their own towns as they have been doing to date. What is being saved in the way of resources and policing hours when one considers that gardaí will have to travel? That is not to mention, first and foremost, the question of accessibility to District Courts and courthouses in the county. As in many other counties and District Court areas that serve large dispersed rural populations, public transport is a major problem in County Mayo. It is all very well to have a court case running, but if one does not have a car and cannot get into court, or meet one's legal representative beforehand, one is in difficulties. This is a very real and serious issue which is often not appreciated in bigger urban centres where public transport is more readily accessible.

What consultation is ongoing? I have no doubt that some consultation has taken place and the reasons have been given for preferring Castlebar. Why are the administration of Swinford District Court and the court sittings being moved to Castlebar? This work is being done in Ballina District Court office. This office holds all of the liquor licensing files and all other files pertaining to the operation of Swinford District Court. I have spoken to stakeholders there, including local gardaí, solicitors practising in the District Court and other interested parties, including representatives of the Mayo Solicitors Bar Association. The general feeling is that there is already a very good working relationship between the District Court staff in Ballina and the Swinford area and as they are already doing this work, why centralise it in Castlebar, unless to undermine the Ballina District Court office and in pursuit of a centralisation policy?

I know that the Courts Service will claim that it looks into issues of public transport, but I cannot believe that is a very real and urgent consideration for it, given the number of rural courthouses it closes down. In this case I am aware that there are considerably more Bus Éireann services - the public transport services available - between Ballina and Swinford because they are on the same N26 national primary Ballina-Dublin route than there are between Swinford and Castlebar. Equally, the new administrative and local authority area sees Swinford being included with Ballina, while much of the Garda district area in Swinford is also being subsumed into the Ballina district. This does not make sense on any score.

In respect of the holding cell, mentioned in connection with Castlebar, there is a state-of-the-art Garda station just around the corner, where all prisoners and people required to be detained in custody can be satisfactorily held. One of the fundamental tenets of the District Court and the way it operates is that it should be accessible to the people of an an area and administered locally.

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this matter and appreciate her interest in the matter of court services in rural counties, particularly in County Mayo. As she may be aware, under the provisions of the Courts Service Act 1998, the management of the courts is the responsibility of the Courts Service and I have no role in the matter. Section 4(3) of the 1998 Act provides that the Courts Service is independent in the performance of its functions which, of course, include the provision, maintenance and management of court buildings.

The Deputy will be aware that the Courts Service has been reviewing all aspects of its organisational and operational structures throughout the country with the specific objective of ensuring front-line court services can be maintained. I am informed that all venues were included in this aspect of the review. In the context of the review, a number of venues were identified to be considered for closure, subject to a detailed assessment and the preparation of a business case.

The service established a general framework within which such venues were assessed taking into account a range of criteria such as caseload, proximity to an alternative venue, physical condition of the building, availability of cells, etc. The likely impact on other justice agencies, such as an Garda Síochána and the Prison Service, is also taken into account. Consultation processes are carried out in each case and among those consulted are the Judiciary, the local Bar Association, an Garda Síochána, the Prison Service, the Probation Service and the relevant town council.

In line with the process, the building committee of the Courts Service board considered outcomes and recommended a number of closures to the board. As part of the consultation process, all those who had been consulted previously were informed of the recommendation of the building committee and were invited to make further submissions which would be placed before the full board for consideration. I am informed these submissions, together with all previous submissions, have been taken into account in the decision-making process.

As the Deputy is aware, the board recently approved the closure of a number of courthouse venues. At its meeting on 1 July 2013, the board approved the closure of venues at Birr, Edenderry, Clones, Swinford, Ballyhaunis, Kinsale, Baltinglass and Kells. I am informed a decision regarding the future of Skibbereen was deferred until the autumn.

The business normally transacted at those venues will be transferred to alternative venues in adjoining District Court areas. It is anticipated all of the venues will formally close on or before 1 January 2014. As already stated, the board is independent under statute in regard to these matters and it is not open to me as Minister to influence the outcome of the deliberations of the independent board.

It was a decision made by the board that the Swinford court work be transferred to Castlebar. The Courts Service fully examined the alternatives available to it and this decision was made having examined those alternatives.

The Courts Service, like all other areas in my Department, has been affected by the cutback in funding available. Each service provider, including the Courts Service, is under an obligation to see what action it can take to ensure expenditures are reduced and appropriate savings are made. The Courts Service had a reduction of €800,000 in its 2013 allocation. I am anticipating that there will be a further reduction in the funding available for 2014.

In that context, it is important for the Courts Service to review existing court centres, the manner in which justice is administered and how savings can be effected while providing the most modern court facilities for the benefit of the public within the limited funding available. I am sorry I cannot be of greater assistance to the Deputy in this matter. Ultimately, these are decisions to be made by the Courts Service.

Michelle Mulherin (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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What savings are being achieved with having gardaí 15 miles away from their station attending a District Court elsewhere and the drain on policing resources that stems from that? I accept savings have to be made. However, consultation with local stakeholders is not meaningful because the grounds for the decision do not resonate with any stakeholders involved. I have sought clarification from the Minister on what seems to be a centralisation policy solely based on cost-cutting measures. If this is the case, the cost for rural areas is that services will be closed down. There should be more consideration than that and recognition of realities such as the availability of public transport. There is not the same level of public transport available to Castlebar that there is to Ballina.

I have been in contact with the Courts Service and it automatically assumed the court work from Swinford would go to Castlebar with no consideration given for Ballina. I appreciate the service may look at this in light of the case I have made to it. However, it shows that the concerns of local stakeholders affected by these decisions were not taken seriously. A buildings committee sitting in Dublin has no concept of what it is to be operating in rural Ireland.

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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It does not matter where the Courts Service building committee sits. It is chaired by the Chief Justice and the presidents of the various courts have input into it. The Courts Service is for the whole of the country; it is not a Dublin-based committee. There was extensive consultation with stakeholders including an Garda Síochána. It is about ensuring that in the current economic climate we maintain a sound Courts Service and that people have access to it but it is done in a manner which is careful with resources. This is an obligation that, unfortunately, our predecessors were not always very conscious of in the arrangements they made on a broad range of areas.

The Government is conscious of the value of providing for an excellent courts system and has continued to provide substantial resources for the service. Last year, a Supplementary Estimate of €5 million was given to it, on top of the original net budget of €54.1 million.

No area can be exempt from the financial constraints of the past few years. While funding has been cut in common with every area within the justice sector, it has been possible to press ahead with some aspects of the capital programme by way of public private partnerships. The Government’s infrastructures stimulus package announced last year includes the development of seven new county-town courthouse projects in Waterford, Wexford, Cork, Limerick, Drogheda, Letterkenny and Mullingar. There is no question of centralising our courts in Dublin.

The board, however, has had to take unpalatable decisions to close several smaller non-viable venues elsewhere. The continuing investment in the county-town venues will facilitate the introduction of more efficient work processes, prisoner transports, allowing the other criminal justice agencies to continue to provide front-line services with reduced staffing levels that are essential nowadays.

I am conscious of the Deputy’s concern to ensure a full and proper Courts Service is available to the people of Mayo. I am committed to that too and I thank her for raising this issue. Ultimately, the final decision-makers with regard to court venues are the Courts Service. Having engaged in a consultative process, it is for it to determine what changes should be implemented with regard to court venues.