Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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501. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality for the average waiting times for Dublin and each of the district probate registries for grants of representation and applications lodged by a solicitor, and the additional resources that have been provided to reduce these waiting times. [35645/17]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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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. Probate functions are also carried out by County Registrars at District Probate Registries in 14 provincial court offices.

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 times in the Dublin Probate Registry for the issue of a Grant on foot of an application lodged by a solicitor is 14/15 weeks.

Two additional staff have been provided to the Probate Office, a Higher Executive Officer and an Executive Officer, and it is anticipated that the appointment of the additional staff will assist in reducing the current delays in processing applications. However the office is also experiencing the unavoidable long term absence of a number of staff which is impacting on the immediate benefit of the additional staff assignments.

The data on waiting times relates to applications received where all the documentation is in order. Where documentation is not in order or is incomplete and it is necessary for the District Probate Registry to raise queries on the documentation, there is a longer timeframe from the receipt of application to the final issue of the grant of probate/administration.

If there is an urgency to a particular application, this can be brought to the attention of the District Probate Registry and the application may be given priority.

There is a significant variance in waiting times across District Probate Registries due to the volume of applications received at District Probate Registries, the skill sets within the Registries, and also the operational priorities within the offices. It is anticipated that the average processing time in dealing with applications received from solicitors in the Sligo District Probate Office will improve significantly over the next two months following the completion of training of a new staff member.

The Courts Service continues to keep the staffing of Courts Service offices, including District Probate Registries under review, and depending on specific circumstances, additional resources may be provided, subject to the necessary funding being available.