Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 116: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of District Court judges in each district from 1997 to date in 2006. [43011/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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The District Court is composed of the Dublin Metropolitan District and 23 other Districts. The Minister may from time to time, after consultation with the President of the District Court, alter the number of judges permanently assigned to any District.

In 1997, the Dublin Metropolitan District had a complement of 14 permanently assigned judges. This was raised to 16 in 1998 and since 2004 it has been 18. In the case of the Cork District, the complement of permanently assigned judges was 2 in 1997 and since 2002 it has been 3. The practice is to permanently assign one judge each to the remaining Districts (i.e., Districts other than the Dublin Metropolitan District and Cork) and, accordingly, one judge has been assigned to each of the Districts in question throughout the period referred to by the Deputy. In addition, the President of the District Court may temporarily assign 'moveable' District Court judges to any District as the need arises.