Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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484. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if consideration has been given to reforming probate laws as they currently stand with a view to making the probate process more efficient; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [60838/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy may be aware, the Probate Office is an office of the High Court. Under the provisions of the Courts Service Act 1998, management of the courts is the responsibility of the Courts Service, which is independent in its functions. Probate functions are also carried out by County Registrars at District Probate Registries in 14 provincial court offices, who are also independent in carrying out their functions.

On November 24th, Minister of State James Browne, on behalf of Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee, brought forward a number of key amendments to the Courts and Civil Miscellaneous Provisions Bill at Dail committee stage. There was an amendment to section 36 of the Succession Act 1965 to streamline the probate process, by allowing a district probate registrar to certify that no other applications have been made in respect of the estate of a deceased person. This task is currently carried out by Courts Service personnel in the Dublin Probate Office, and this amendment will allow district offices to process and issue the standard grants more efficiently, allowing shorter probate processing times. This Bill will complete the legislative process in the New Year.   

In addition, as part of the updated actions under Housing for All, the Department will in 2023 examine whether the probate process is causing delays to releasing supply of residential property and identify actions to address any such delays as needed.

I am informed by the Courts Service that they have embarked on a 10-year programme of modernisation of the Courts system. A proposal to roll out an eProbate project has been identified as part of the civil law modernisation workstream. It is envisaged that this project will include a single point of contact for all applications for Probate in the State. The introduction of this improved system will hopefully lead to a faster and more efficient process time. By reducing the number of invalid applications, the development of the new system will allow staff resources to be better utilised in processing other applications for the benefit of court users.