Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail)
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216. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if she will provide details for each insolvency judge appointed recently; where each judge sits; the number of cases each judge has dealt with since appointment under the Personal Insolvency Act; if these judges are available for other duties; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31922/14]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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Six Specialist Judges of the Circuit Court were appointed on 15 July 2013 in accordance with Part Six of the Personal Insolvency Act 2012 which provided for the amendment of the Courts Acts to create a cadre of Specialist Judges of the Circuit Court to facilitate the speedy consideration of insolvency applications by that Court. As the Deputy will recall, these judges previously served as County Registrars and provision was made for their appointment in order to avoid expenditure on additional judicial salaries and pensions.

It is my intention that these new judges will also be given jurisdiction to deal with applications to the Circuit Court under the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Bill 2013 of which there are likely to be very significant numbers when that Bill is enacted later this year. The Deputy will also be aware that the number of insolvency applications is increasing by the month and will continue to increase into the autumn. The legislation assigning functions to the Specialist Judges will, of course, be kept under review in my Department.

As the Deputy also may be aware, the scheduling of court cases and the allocation of court business is a matter for the President of the Circuit Court who is, under the Constitution, independent in the exercise of his 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 one office in each circuit was designated to deal with all insolvency applications in that circuit and at least one judge was appointed to each circuit as set out in the table below: