John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

69. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the average waiting time for a probate application to be processed in Dublin; her views on whether there is an insufficient number of staff processing applications in the Dublin Probate Office; her views on whether an investment in temporary staff at these offices would help alleviate the housing crisis as it would result in fewer properties lying empty; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32562/16]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Probate Office is an office of the High Court and management of the courts is the responsibility of the Courts Service which is independent in exercising its functions under the Courts Service Act 1998.

However, in order to be of assistance to the Deputy, I have had enquiries made and the Courts Service has informed me that the current waiting time for Grants of Representation is 16 weeks for applications lodged by a solicitor and 24 weeks for personal applications.

All applications for Grants of Representation in deceased persons' estates are made on foot of a number of mandatory legal documents which must be furnished by the applicants and these require detailed checking by the Probate Office to ensure that the estate of the deceased person is administered correctly and in accordance with the law. All applications are assessed on the basis of the date on which they are lodged, an approach which provides fairness and equity to all applicants. Priority can only be given to probate applications where it is considered that extenuating circumstances so warrant. In such circumstances it is open to applicants to bring the matter to the attention of the Probate Office.

The backlogs in the probate system are a cause for concern and a review of the probate system is being carried out at present. It is anticipated that a report with recommendations for the modernisation of the process will be presented to the Senior Management Team of the Courts Service and to the Courts Service Board for their consideration by the end of 2016. In the meantime, the Courts Service is assigning an additional permanent member of staff to the Probate Office to assist in dealing with the high volume of work of the Office. The Courts Service have advised that the provision of temporary staff to the Probate Office is not the solution as the examination of probate applications requires a thorough legal examination of documents and that it would take a new staff member a period of at least six months to acquire a satisfactory knowledge in this area.