Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. This is my second time in 18 months to raise this matter on the Adjournment. I stand over what I said previously and nothing has occurred since. This is about the appointment of a third Taxing Master.

The current position is that if someone wins their High Court action their solicitor will want to get the costs taxed. If an agreement has been reached the matter comes before the Taxing Master in the High Court but there are only two Taxing Masters. The problem is that there is huge delay. I have read the reply the Minister gave to Deputy Michael McGrath and I am sorry to say that the information in that reply is incorrect. It is correct in that from the date a case is set down for taxation it takes ten weeks before one will get an initial hearing but the decisions being made are not made at the end of the ten weeks. I was involved in one case where after 12 months a decision still had not been made. I know of numerous solicitors who have furnished all the evidence, both from the defendants and the plaintiffs, and seven to eight months later a decision has not been made. While the reply given by the Courts Service is technically correct, what the Courts Service is not giving is details of decisions.

I will give the Minister the figures. In 2011, 1,820 summonses were issued for taxation and 796 certificates issued. In 2013, 1,350 summons were issued. The reason summons were not issued is because people are aware of the considerable delays and they are trying every other means to try to resolve the issues. In 2013, only 345 certificates were issued by the Taxing Masters. That figure has decreased by more than 50% in less than two years, not because the work is not being presented but because decisions are not being reached.

In fairness to the Taxing Masters I will not go into the reasons for the delays but the process has come to a standstill. I understand one legal practice has taken the matter before the High Court for it to rule on how it should be dealt with.

This matter will not go away, and the response given to Deputy McGrath is not an accurate picture of what has been happening on the ground. If one talks to a legal practitioner or legal costs accountants, who employ quite a number of people, they will say that many of them have had to let staff go because of delays in getting decisions. That indicates the seriousness of the situation. Small legal practices in rural areas might deal with two or three big cases in the year and they are waiting three years to get paid. We are talking not only about solicitors but barristers, engineers, quantity surveyors and medics, and none of them are getting paid. This matter cannot be left as it is and I will not accept the response given in last few days to Deputy Michael McGrath.