Batt O'Keeffe (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

On behalf of the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy Michael McDowell, I thank Senator McHugh for raising this important issue. I hope what I have to say will be positive in terms of addressing the issues he raised.

The Tánaiste has asked me to assure the Senator and the House of the importance he places on adequately resourcing the judicial system. In this regard, he was very pleased to announce yesterday that he has secured Government approval to bring forward legislation for the appointment of nine additional judges. Two of these judges are to be assigned to the High Court, two to the Circuit Court and five to the District Court. The additional judges are being appointed to deal with delays and to generally speed up the judicial process. Legislation providing for the additional judges will be enacted as soon as possible. The Tánaiste is confident that these additional judges will go a long way to ensuring the efficient functioning of our courts system and will, in particular, address the problem of delays at all levels of the system nationwide.

With regard to the Circuit Court in Donegal, I can inform the House that Judge John O'Hagan was assigned to the northern circuit with effect from 24 July this year. There is, therefore, no vacancy on the northern circuit at present. The Tánaiste understands that the level of delays in criminal matters on the northern circuit is significantly lower than at many other venues throughout the country. Despite this, however, five weeks of additional sittings were allocated to the northern circuit in the current term alone in order to deal with lengthy criminal trials in Carrick-on-Shannon and Monaghan. Waiting times for family law and civil cases on the northern circuit also compare favourably with other venues around the country.

There is a vacancy in the Donegal district arising from the retirement of Judge O'Donnell last September. The Senator will be aware that three new judges of the District Court were appointed by the President last week and were subsequently sworn in by the Chief Justice on Tuesday. The Tánaiste wishes to assure the Senator that he will very shortly request the Government to assign judges to fill vacancies in a number of court districts, including Donegal.

On foot of representations he received, the Tánaiste raised the situation in Donegal with the Courts Service. He has been advised that the District Court committee of the Courts Service Board has examined the need for the reorganisation of district No. 1, which covers Donegal, but has decided against recommending any change at present.

The question of the need for additional judicial resources on the northern circuit or in the Donegal district is, in the first instance, a matter for consideration by the presidents of the Circuit Court and the District Court. The latter have at their disposal numbers of unassigned judges who can be used, inter alia, to assist permanently assigned judges where pressure of work demands. In this regard, I understand that, last year, 90 extra court sittings were organised in Donegal by the president of the District Court in an effort to tackle delays as they became apparent. The previous year, the president made arrangements for 112 extra sittings and a total of 1,139 cases were disposed of. This greatly reduced the backlog. The President of the District Court will, no doubt, continue to assign additional judges to Donegal as the need arises. The Presidents of the Courts and the Courts Service will guide the Tánaiste on the need for additional permanently assigned judges.

The Tánaiste understands that while the courthouse in Letterkenny is generally in good condition, it is accepted that the space and facilities are not available on busy court days to meet current requirements. A new courthouse for Letterkenny is included in the €50 million package of new court facilities to be provided by way of a public private partnership. This project is being progressed by the Courts Service. Last year, an impressive new courthouse was opened in Ballyshannon which represented a significant improvement on the previous temporary court facilities in the town.