Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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724. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of cases in the courts in which an order under section 60 of the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015 was issued to date in 2020; her views on the application of this provision; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38140/20]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Under the provisions of the Courts Service Act 1998, management of the courts, including the provision of accommodation for court sittings, is the responsibility of the Courts Service, which is independent in exercising its functions.

However, in order to be of assistance to the Deputy, I have had enquiries made and the Courts Service inform me that that applications under section 60 of the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015 are rare.

The Courts Service ICT system records Section 60 applications under the general category of "Guardianship - other". This means that a manual review of each of the relevant applications would be required to provide the information requested by the Deputy. The Courts Service has informed me that regrettably it is not in a position to do so at this time, given the scale of resources that would be required.

The record €3 billion allocation for 2021 for the Justice Sector includes €42 million to modernise the sector through increased digital and ICT investment. This includes €8 million for the Courts Modernisation Programme, almost €4 million of which is for ICT investment.