Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 84: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if he will outline on a county basis, the number of court cases in each court district that are currently being heard and have not been adjourned; the number that have been adjourned and the main reason for their adjournment; the number that have a hearing date set; the number that are awaiting a hearing date; and the way the Court Service intends to tackle backlogs in specific areas. [22635/12]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, under the Courts Service Act 1998, the management and administration of the courts is a matter for the Courts Service while the allocation of the business of the courts, scheduling of cases and management of lists are matters for the judiciary and in particular the Presidents of the courts. The Deputy will also be aware that judges are, subject to the Constitution and the law, independent in the exercise of their judicial functions.

However, in order to be of assistance to the Deputy, I have had enquiries made and the Courts Service has informed me that, while currently statistics are not maintained on the number of adjournments, the Service works closely with the judiciary to ensure that all cases are dealt with as quickly as possible. I am circulating with this reply a tabular statement detailing the District Court backlogs around the country for December 2009, 2010 and 2011 and the Deputy will note that, generally, backlogs have not deteriorated. The usual practice is that Court Presidents assign additional judges to assist where backlogs have arisen. However, as the Deputy will be aware, until recently there were up to eight vacancies on the District Court and seven on the Circuit Court which prevented some additional sittings. The Government has moved quickly to fill those key judicial posts and in the meantime I understand that priority was given to criminal sittings. Moreover, the Courts Service has lost over 120 posts through retirements over the past two years yet I am informed that no Circuit or District Court sittings have been cancelled due to lack of staffing resources. The Service continues, to the extent possible, to fill key front line posts by lateral transfers, increased flexibility in the use of staff resources, restructuring and redeployment where permissible. Detailed contingency plans are in place for Dublin, where there are high volume courts, to try to ensure that court sitting levels are maintained at 2011 levels notwithstanding decreased resources. A general contingency plan is also in place for provincial locations which can be tailored to circumstances in individual offices.

As the Deputy has observed adjournments can give rise to delay. The conduct of a case is a matter for the presiding judge but it is, however, important to understand that a judge may grant an adjournment for a wide variety of reasons, for example, where a case or a previous case takes longer than anticipated; unavailability of key participants - whether that is the judge who has seisin of the case, the legal practitioners or witness; or the case is not able to proceed due to the parties not being ready or due to issues around availability of evidence or disclosure.

One reason for adjournments has been the requirement in some cases to seek a probation report which traditionally resulted in cases being adjourned to allow an assessment to be carried out. I am pleased to inform the Deputy that this is being addressed through new work practices. Since 2011, the Probation Service provides 'same day' assessment reports as an option available to judges where Community Service orders are under consideration. I understand this arrangement is working well in the majority of cases and by the end of 2011, almost a third of all Community Service assessments carried out by the Probation Service were completed on the same day. A similar pilot arrangement in respect of pre-sanction reports has recently commenced in the District Courts in the Criminal Courts of Justice.

I should add that an Expert Group has been considering, in the context of the European Convention on Human Rights, how delays might be remedied and I look forward to considering their report in the coming weeks.