Limerick East): First, the question of juries was not specifically taken into account but there is advice that trials will be shortened somewhat by a move from juries to a judge making the decision. It is difficult to quantify that, but it was not taken into account in the calculations here.
The second point raised was the question of ancillary staff. These appointments were made with the sanction of the Minister for the Public Service to provide the normal ancillary staff that accompanies either a High Court judge or a Circuit Court judge. The reason for the curious wording in subsection 1 is that at the moment there is a backlog, especially on the civil side of some of our courts. It is running at about 10 months in Dundalk, which is the shortest one. It is 12 months on average, but in Cork there is still a backlog of perhaps 22 months. The President of the High Court says that during 1986 he expects that backlog to be down to about 18 months. We are aiming at a situation where we can reduce the waiting period from the time of setdown to the time of hearing to about 10 months right across the country. We feel it would be virtually impossible to get it below that, because it would not be possible to assess injury on the basis of full medical reports once they have recuperated beyond that point. Even though we have this backlog, the High Court is dealing with more cases than are actually being set down. Last year it dealt with an enormous number of cases. The present complement of judges is adequate to deal with the number of cases being now set down. If we could clear the backlog then we would not need the extra judge for a very long period.
We are doing a number of other things also. As I said yesterday, we have provided extra accommodation both in the High Court in the Four Courts in Dublin for jury courts, and also in Cork. One of the major problems with backlogs was the lack of accommodation, where the judges could sit rather than the unavailability of judges. Secondly, I said yesterday we are preparing a Bill to increase the role of the Master of the High Court. That will help somewhat. We feel that the extra judge will not be necessary as a permanent appointment to complement the existing number of judges. The reason for fixing 2 April 1987 as the operative date is that a judge is due to retire from the Bench on 3 April, having reached the retirement age, so whoever we appoint after January will obviously continue as a permanent judge. There will be one person fewer in the complement of judges once we pass 1987. If I or some other Minister reviewing the situation in 1987 decides that we still need an extra judge there is nothing to stop a Minister coming in and looking for the permission of both Houses to increase the complement of judges again. There are 14 judges, including the President, at the moment. This will make their number 15, with the President, up to 2 April 1987. Then it will revert to 14 after that point. It is specifically geared to clear the backlog on the civil side in the High Court.