James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Under the provisions of the Courts Service Act 1998, management of the courts is the responsibility of the Courts Service, which is independent in exercising its functions.

The Courts Service Act 1998 sets out the nature of the relationship between the Courts Service and the County Registrar. The post of County Registrar is a statutory officer appointed by the Government, with a number of different roles, including under-sheriff and returning officer functions. When such posts become vacant, arrangements are made with the Courts Service and the Public Appointments Service to run an open recruitment competition to identify suitable persons for recommendation to Government for appointment.

The legislation governing the appointment of County Registrars provides for up to twenty-six County Registrars, each assigned to a County. Following an expenditure review conducted across the public service in 2009, the number of serving County Registrars was reduced on a phased basis to 16. This reduction was made possible by reorganising the work of the courts including the establishment of combined court offices, which encompassed the transfer of management functions previously exercised by County Registrars to Courts Service management personnel. In 2017, an additional County Registrar position was created for Counties Meath and Westmeath which brought the number of serving County Registrars to 17.

I can advise the Deputy that there are currently 14 serving county registrars, with 3 vacancies currently outstanding in Louth, Mayo/Roscommon and Waterford respectively. The competitions for Louth and Mayo/Roscommon are now complete and the usual clearance procedures are ongoing.  The competition for the Waterford is in the planning phase and will be advertised as soon as possible.

Further information on such competitions is available on the public jobs website (www.publicjobs.ie).