Grace Boland (Dublin Fingal West, Fine Gael)
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563. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the current average and median processing time for applications for grants of probate, broken down by solicitor applications, personal applications, online applications and paper applications, and by the Dublin probate office and each district probate registry. [68395/26]

Grace Boland (Dublin Fingal West, Fine Gael)
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567. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality whether the Courts Service has established target processing times for probate applications; the current performance against those targets; and the further reforms that are planned to reduce the time taken from receipt of a complete application to the issuing of a grant. [68403/26]

Grace Boland (Dublin Fingal West, Fine Gael)
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574. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the current staffing complement of the Probate Office and District Probate Registries; the number of vacancies in each; whether the Courts Service has assessed whether existing staffing levels are sufficient to meet current and projected demand; and whether additional resources will be provided where required. [68398/26]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 563, 567 and 574 together.

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. As Minister, I have no role in the exercise of probate functions.

I am advised by the Courts Service that significant progress has been made to reduce average probate processing times. The average time (nationwide) for probate applications to complete is down from 22 weeks at the start of 2024 to 12 weeks in 2026. The current processing timeline for the Dublin Probate Office can now be viewed at .

Probate applications lodged through the new Probate Portal, which is currently open to solicitor applications, are currently being processed within approximately 3 to 4 weeks of lodgement, provided no queries arise.

The Courts Service is progressing its 10-year Modernisation Programme, to deliver an operating model that is digitally enabled and designed around the user. As part of these efforts, the 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.

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 to 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.

As the Courts Service progresses and improves the eProbate system, I am advised that it will be rolled out for more areas, such as intestacy and personal applicants. 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.

The Courts Service has provided data regarding the median proceeding times for probate applications from 2021 to Quarter 2 2026 as set out in the table below.

Table: Probate Median Proceeding Times in weeks – 2021 to Q.2, 2026

In relation to staffing, the total number of staff working in the Probate Office in Dublin is presently 22. The breakdown of staff by grade at the Probate Office in Dublin is set out in the table below.

Finally, I am informed by the Courts Service that where an application is returned for correction and is subsequently resubmitted, it does not return to the end of the processing queue. However, due to the high volume of queried applications awaiting review, there may be a delay before the resubmitted application can be checked again.

Grace Boland (Dublin Fingal West, Fine Gael)
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564. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of applications for grants of representation currently awaiting processing, broken down by the Dublin probate office and each district probate registry; the number that have been awaiting processing for more than four, eight, twelve and sixteen weeks; and the measures being taken to reduce waiting times. [68396/26]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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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.

To be of assistance, I have referred the Deputy's question to the Courts Service for direct reply.