John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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302. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if he will outline the secured funding for the courts service to facilitate the development and delivery of the eProbate project, which is expected to lead to a faster process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49325/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will appreciate, as Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, I have no role in the exercise of Probate functions. The Probate Office is an office of the High Court. Management of the courts, operational matters and logistical functions are the responsibility of the judiciary and Courts Service, which are independent in the exercise of 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.

The Courts Service eProbate project commenced in 2023 and seeks to digitally transform back-office probate operations, to provide an online portal supporting the digital submission of applications, and to improve the provision of probate information online via the courts.ie website. The total funding for the eProbate project is €1,518,500.

As part of the eProbate project a new, plain language information site was launched on courts.ie in mid-2024 to help applicants and solicitors in navigate the probate process. Following this, the project deployed a new modern back office-system countrywide in March 2025, paving the way for the development of the online portal in the coming weeks.

A public facing portal will act as a single point of contact for personal applicants and their solicitors to submit and track their applications through the entire process. The electronic submission of applications through the online portal, combined with a simplified process, sharing of data from the Revenue Commissioners and the automated validation of key information at submission time, will enable faster and more efficient processing of applications, thereby reducing processing time.