Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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32. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality her plans to ensure an adequate number of district court judges are provided for across the State. [26443/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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It is a priority for the Government to ensure that the courts are resourced to administer justice efficiently and effectively. To ensure the sufficient resourcing of all courts, Government committed to a historic increase in the number of judges in February 2023, following the publication of the Judicial Planning Working Group report.

The current legislative provision is for 197 judicial posts, of which 72 are District Court judges. As of 14 June 2024, there is one vacancy to be filled in each of the High Court, Circuit Court and District Court. Work is under way to fill these vacancies as soon as possible.

The Report of the Judicial Planning Working Group recommended that 44 additional judges should be appointed in two phases to address existing backlogs and reduce excessive waiting times across all court jurisdictions. In addition, the Working Group recommended a range of measures to ensure the more efficient use of judicial resources already in place.

A first tranche of 24 additional judges was approved and subsequently appointed by Government in 2023 which included 8 additional District Court, 8 additional Circuit Court, 6 additional High Court and 2 additional Court of Appeal judges. The report recommends that the second tranche of another 20 extra judges, which would include 6 additional District Court, 6 additional Circuit Court, 6 additional High Court and 2 additional Court of Appeal judges, should be put in place subject to an assessment of the impact of the first tranche on court business.

Work is currently under way on assessing the impact of the increased judges, including capturing improvements in efficiency and effectiveness with regard to caseloads, changing demographics, economic conditions, and the impact of new legislation as well as improvements from modernisation measures. An Implementation Steering Group is progressing the implementation of the report’s other recommendations.