James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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245. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the waiting times for the granting of probate in the Probate Office; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27764/20]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, 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.

However, in order to be of assistance to the Deputy, I have had enquiries made and the Courts Service has informed me that the waiting times for solicitors applications in the Dublin Probate Office is eight weeks. The office experienced a four fold increase in applications for probate from people represented by solicitors during the last week of August, in advance of the introduction of the new Revenue online system for filing the Revenue Affidavit, which is an essential part of every application for probate.   It is expected that the new online system for filing the Revenue Affidavit will reduce the waiting times for all applications.

The Deputy will be aware that the restrictions on movement introduced earlier this year, in response  the Covid-19 pandemic, led to the initial cancellation of all interviews with personal applicants for probate. Arrangements were made, with the support of the Courts Service’s Health and Safety function, to resume interviews with personal applicants from Monday 21st September 2020. The office is currently processing a backlog of personal applications and hope to have that backlog cleared within a week or two. Waiting times will then be back to pre-Covid 19 restriction levels.