Ivana Bacik (Independent)

I am grateful for the Minister's clarification. I hope that Mrs. Justice Susan Denham's recommendations will be taken on board. The piecemeal development of the jurisdiction of the Court of Criminal Appeal is the difficulty, largely due to the constantly shifting judges. I do not mean this as any criticism of the individual judges but different judges have sat making it hard to see a consistent set of principles evolve.

Now that the Court of Criminal Appeal has a permanent home in court 22 in the new criminal court complex hopefully there will be a new and more fixed team of judges. I should have earlier extended my compliments beyond the Courts Service to include the Minister and the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform on their excellent work on the building. I might criticise many aspects of public private partnerships, which have not served the State well in some areas such as regeneration projects in Dublin, and in Thornton Hall, but on this project the partnership seems to work well. This is a great improvement on conditions for criminal trials. I hope the physical conditions of the Court of Criminal Appeal will be matched by the emergence of a better and more consistent set of principles from the jurisprudence of the court.