Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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248. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality when electronic filing with the central office of the courts service will be available; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45872/23]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will appreciate that the management of the courts is the responsibility of the Courts Service. I can, however, assure him that the Department fully supports the Courts Service in its work to create an environment where justice can be administered efficiently and accessibly for all citizens.

The Government have invested substantial additional resources into the Courts Service in recent years to support its ongoing 10-year Modernisation Programme.

This is reflected in Budget 2024, as €183 million was allocated for the Courts vote, including capital funding of €67 million. This builds on significant investment in recent years, with a total allocation of €176.5 million in 2023, and €164m in 2022.

I am pleased to say that the support of electronic filing with the Central Office of the High Court is one of the key goals of the Courts Service Modernisation Programme.

The move to support such electronic filing requires two steps. The first is a replacement of a 30 year-old digital case management system used within the office and the second is to establish an online portal to facilitate e-filings.

At the start of October this year, the first step was taken with the replacement of the old case management system with a new modernised system capable of integrating with an online portal.

The development of the online portal is underway and is scheduled for its initial launch in Q1 2024.

This launch will initially support the e-filing of a limited set of case types only, and once tried and tested, will expand incrementally to a broad range of case types.