Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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50. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the steps that are being taken to address the lack of judges in the Irish legal system; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51006/22]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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It is a priority for my Department to ensure that the courts are resourced to administer justice efficiently and effectively for citizens in their access to justice. The Government endeavours to fill judicial vacancies at the earliest opportunity, and a number of such vacancies have been filled recently.

In order to bring more strategic focus to this, I established a Judicial Planning Working Group in April 2021, in line with commitments in the Programme for Government and the Justice Plan action to “Establish a working group to consider the number of and type of judges required to ensure the efficient administration of justice over the next five years”. Future judicial resourcing needs will be informed by the report and recommendations of this Group.

To help support the work of this Group, the OECD were commissioned to prepare an independent review of judicial resources, including benchmarks against international comparators. This is the first time such a review has been undertaken. Due to the complexity of evaluating the data and analysis underpinning the research, it has taken longer than originally anticipated for the OECD to complete its work. A draft final report from the OECD is currently under review by my officials. The Judicial Planning Working Group expects to submit its final report to me shortly, having considered the OECD research.

As an interim measure, the Government increased the number of judges in the High Court from 37 to 42 last year with the enactment of the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2021.

In addition, section 8 of the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2021 provided for the number of High Court judges to be exceeded by a further one should the Government, at my request, having consulted with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, form the opinion that it was necessary due to the volume of business and to ensure the efficient administration of justice. I brought a Memorandum to Government on 19 January 2022, with a recommendation to have that additional High Court post filled.

With that appointment to the High Court, the complement of High Court judges is now six more than it was on 1 October 2021. This represents one of the largest increases in judges in recent memory and a very significant investment by the State in judicial resources.