asked the Minister for Justice if there are more High Court judges appointed than there are courts to accommodate them; and if, in view of delays in obtaining High Court trials, he has any proposals to remedy this situation.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Courts Accommodation.
2.
Care has to be taken in drawing inferences from the ratio between the number of High Court judges and the number of courtrooms available to High Court judges in the Four Courts since High Court judges have duties to discharge elsewhere also as, for instance, in places other than Dublin when on circuit. In fact courtroom accommodation for High Court judges in the Four Courts has not been a serious problem though on occasions an extra room would have been utilised if it had been available and this would have been of some help to the judges in disposing of cases.
Arrangements are well advanced which, inter alia, will have the effect of making an extra courtroom available to the High Court in Dublin in the course of the next few months.
I accept that on occasion judges go on circuit, but is it not true that there are ten High Court judges and that there are eight rooms available, occasionally nine, but there is one judge who, with the recent increase, is receiving £14,221 per annum, who has no courtroom available to him?
I refer the Deputy to the opening part of my reply in which I said that care has to be taken in drawing inferences from the ratio between the number of High Court judges and the number of courtrooms available. I understand the number of High Court judges, including the President, is ten and the number of High Court courtrooms in the Four Courts is eight. Courtrooms Nos. 1 to 8, inclusive, are High Court courtrooms. The equivalent of the time of one High Court judge is devoted to sittings of the Special Criminal Court. On occasions when the Court of Criminal Appeal is sitting, the time of all ten High Court judges could be taken up by sittings in Dublin, because a Supreme Court judge and two High Court judges sit simultaneously in this court. At present, the Court of Criminal Appeal on average sits on one day per fortnight.
As well as sitting in Dublin, the time of High Court judges is taken up hearing appeals and some original actions at provincial venues on circuit. Judges go on circuit in October and March each year for three weeks, approximately, on each occasion, and usually two judges, including sometimes Supreme Court judges, go to each of four circuits simultaneously. Two judges go to Cork in January, April and July for two weeks on each occasion for the hearing of original actions, mostly jury cases. Judges work in their chambers on the preparation of reserved judgments, the vetting of stenographers' transcripts and the writing of notes in cases where stenographers' notes were not taken on cases appealed to the High Court, and the reading of relevant papers for sittings of the Court of Criminal Appeal. The Deputy therefore will see why care should be taken when speaking of the number of rooms and the number of judges.
My reason for raising this is because quite a number of practising barristers have told me that on occasions they have seen judges with no place available to sit. It is because of this that I raise it. In Deputy O'Keeffe's question he asked the Minister about the delays in High Court trials. In his reply the Minister said a courtroom would have been utilised if it were available. In other words, he admits there is a lack of available space. Is the Minister aware that, if a High Court trial is put down for hearing today, it will not be heard this year? Is the Minister aware that a simple action like an action involving a car accident takes approximately 12 months to be brought on for hearing? Is the Minister aware of the inconvenience and the losses this is causing to clients, insurance companies, and so on? Has he any statement to make in reply?
The Deputy is aware that, during the course of Committee Stage on the Landlord and Tenants (Ground Rents) No. 2 Bill, which we finished today, reference was made to this subject. I should like to say again it is expected that new court accommodation in an office block adjacent to the Four Courts, which was Ormonde House, will be ready for occupation very soon—I would hope at the end of May or perhaps in June. This new accommodation will include a court chamber and ancillary accommodation for the hearing of High Court family law cases.
The Deputy mentioned the delays in the courts. As I understand it, the statistics of High Court business for the Michaelmas Term show there has been a considerable increase in the volume of business compared with the corresponding period in 1976. The average delay from the date of setting down to the date of hearing was nine months in the case of jury actions and three months in the case of non-jury actions as compared with seven-and-a-half and two-and-a-half months respectively on 31 July 1977. It is proposed to discuss the position as regards the increasing volume of business and the increased delay period with the President of the High Court in the near future particularly in the light of the new court chamber becoming available in Ormonde House.
Could I ask one supplementary?
We have already had a number of questions on this matter.
I did not ask one.
One short question.
Does the Minister accept the principle that justice delayed is justice denied? In the light of the rather alarming figures he has mentioned showing that the trend is going in the wrong way, would he consider taking further steps, if possible, to ensure that this trend is reversed?
The Deputy probably misunderstood what I said. The alarming trend is not going in the wrong way. I showed from statistics available to me that there has been a marked improvement in the position.
An improvement? I see.
I should like to assure the Deputy and the House that, even with the improvement which can be seen clearly from the statistics, we would all welcome a greater improvement.
Will the Minister take steps to try to improve the trend?
I certainly will do what I can.
The Minister mentioned that the High Court goes on circuit to Cork, Kilkenny and a few other places. I suggest that the High Court should visit other towns on circuit. In its own way, this would lead to faster and speedier trials down the country.
While this is not directly related to the question I am quite prepared to consider what the Deputy has said.