I propose to take Questions Nos. 23, 26, 38 and 45 together.
I am very pleased that, as the House will be aware, the industrial action undertaken by clerical staff in court offices who are members of the Civil and Public Service Union came to an end on 20 November 1991 following negotiations between officials of my Department and the Civil and Public Service Union.
Members of the CPSU who had been involved in the industrial action in the courts resumed work on 21 November 1991. The Civil and Public Service Union are balloting their members at the moment on proposals for settlement with a recommendation for acceptance.
Following the resumption of work the main priority now is to clear the backlog which has built up in the courts during the dispute and the staff in the court offices are co-operating fully to clear the arrears as quickly as possible.
With regard to the figures requested by Deputy McCartan of the number of court cases, hearings and applications deferred because of the dispute, the position is that these figures are not available and could only be compiled by the expenditure of a disproportionate amount of staff time. All efforts now must be directed towards dealing with arrears which have built up particularly in areas such as family law, wards of court and probate.
