This short Bill provides for an increase from six to seven in the statutory number of ordinary judges of the High Court and contains a provision relating to the qualifications for appointment as Circuit Court judge.
Recent years have seen a very substantial increase in the volume of business in the High Court. Also, for over a year now the time of one High Court judge has been occupied with sittings of the Special Criminal Court and this will continue while the Special Criminal Court lasts. These factors have resulted in the growth of serious arrears and there are now approximately 1,000 cases awaiting hearing in the High Court. Very long delays are also being experienced—at present it takes about 12 months before a jury action set down for hearing comes up for trial.
This is the background to the proposal in section 1 of the Bill to increase the number of High Court judges by one. The Government are satisfied that the normal increase which can be expected in the business of the High Court will ensure that the additional judge will be fully occupied even after sittings of the Special Criminal Court cease. I may say also that the appointment of an additional judge will mean that the recent assignment of one of the judges to the inquiry into security announced by the Taoiseach will not have the effect of worsening the present situation in regard to the business of the court.
The purpose of section 2 of the Bill is to provide that a person who is for the time being a "temporary" Circuit Court judge will be specifically qualified for appointment as a permanent judge or for further appointment as a temporary judge. The necessity for this section arises from the fact that the provisions relating to the qualifications for appointment as a permanent or "temporary" Circuit Court judge specify that the person to be appointed must be a practising barrister at the date of appointment— or, in the case of a permanent appointment, a barrister district justice. A person already acting as a "temporary" Circuit judge may not be capable of being regarded as a practising barrister and may not therefore come strictly within the qualification provisions I have mentioned.
Section 2 of the Bill removes any doubt that exists by providing that for the purpose of the relevant qualification provisions service as a "temporary" Circuit Court judge shall be deemed practice at the Bar. In the past a number of "temporary" Circuit Court judges have been given either permanent or further temporary appointments and to remove any possible doubt that may be thought to exist in relation to these appointments, section 2 provides that service as a "temporary" Circuit Court judge shall be deemed always to have been practice at the Bar both in relation to appointments to the present Circuit Court and appointments to the former Circuit Court of Justice which existed prior to 1961. Subsection (1) deals with the appointments made to the former Circuit Court of Justice and subsection (2) deals with appointments to the present Circuit Court.
I may say that this is not the first time that legislation similar to section 2 has been necessary. In the early days of our courts it was found that a High Court judge had been appointed to the Supreme Court at a time when there was no statutory provision specifically allowing such an appointment. Section 6 of the Courts of Justice Act was enacted to remedy that situation and, like section 2 of the Bill, was framed so as to have retrospective effect. Later it was found that judges of the Supreme Court were not specifically qualified for appointment as President of the High Court and to provide for the possibility of such an appointment a suitable provision was inserted in the Courts (Supplemental Provisions) Act, 1961.
Regrettably, the High Court is not the only court in which there are arrears. As Senators will, no doubt, be aware there is an equally serious situation in the Circuit Court, particularly in Dublin where the increase in criminal business has been very substantial. The question of what permanent increase should be made in the number of Circuit Court judges to enable that court to cope with the present volume of business is being examined. Pending the outcome of this examination, an additional temporary judge has been appointed for a period of one year. This increases the number of Circuit Court judges, whether permanent or temporary from 11 to 12.
I should like, finally, to emphasise my very real concern about the arrears situation in the High Court and the Circuit Court. I regard the delays that are currently being experienced as intolerable and as a source of great injustice and hardship to the community. I do not, of course, regard the appointment of the extra judges I have mentioned as the full solution. Obviously there is a very great deal that can be done and should be done to streamline procedures and to improve the organisation and structures of the courts.
The Committee on Court Practice and Procedure, to whom we must all be indebted for the amount of work they have done and continue to do, have made numerous, valuable recommendations in this area and I am arranging that the many recommendations of this committee that have not yet been acted upon will be examined as a matter of priority in my Department. The subject is a complex one and does not admit of an instant solution: if such a solution existed I would have adopted it before this. However, I should like to assure Senators that the finding of a satisfactory long term solution is something that I, as Minister for Justice, intend will be given urgent attention.
This short Bill is an essential interim measure in dealing with the problem and I recommend it to Senators.
