Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

179. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the action being taken to address the issue of backlogs in the Probate Office; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26712/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy is aware as Minister for Justice, I have no role in the exercise of Probate functions.

The Probate Office is an office of the High Court, and management of the courts is the responsibility of the judiciary and Courts Service, which are independent in exercising their functions under the Courts Service Act 1998 and given the separation of powers in the Constitution. Probate functions are also carried out by County Registrars at District Probate Registries in 14 provincial court offices.

In December 2023, the then Taoiseach established a Working Group on Conveyancing and Probate, to carry out a review of current conveyancing and probate processes and identify scope for greater efficiency and streamlining. The group comprises various experts including a solicitor, an auctioneer, consumer advocates as well as officials from the Department of the Taoiseach, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and my Department.

The group is engaging with key industry representatives from the financial services, legal services, local government, property services sectors as well as other stakeholders. It is envisaged that this Group will report with its recommendations in the coming weeks, and I along with ministerial colleagues, look forward to that report.

I can further advise that as part of its ongoing Modernisation Programme, the Courts Service is working to digitally transform the way in which applications for probate are processed.

The eProbate project will deliver a facility to submit and track applications for Grants of Representation online via a public facing portal. This new digital solution is currently in development, with an expected public launch and rollout in the first half of 2025.

The public facing portal will act as a single point of contact for users to submit and track their applications through the entire process. The electronic submission of applications through the online portal, combined with automated validation of key information at submission time will enable faster and more efficient processing of applications, with the aim of reducing waiting times.

At the same time, the Courts Service is aware of its need to reduce waiting times while the eProbate project is underway. In this regard, it is prioritising the recruitment of additional staff to help in this task.