Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 November 2013
760. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the extent to which backlogs in the court system are likely to be overtaken in the short and medium term; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46235/13]
View answerAs the Deputy will be aware, the Courts Service is responsible for the management and administration of the Courts. The scheduling of court cases and the allocation of court business is a matter for the Presidents of the courts and the presiding judge who are under the Constitution independent in the exercise of their judicial functions. The Presidents monitor waiting times across all courts lists and seek to ensure the optimum use of court time. However, in order to be of assistance to the Deputy, I have had enquiries made and the Courts Service has informed me that the primary objective for the Service is to maintain the delivery of front line court sittings and services. The Courts Service continuously works to support the judiciary and assist in ensuring that cases are dealt with as effectively and as speedily as possible. Available resources and operational and organisational structures are under ongoing review to ensure that resources are targeted and focussed on keeping waiting times in the provision of services to a minimum.
In relation to the Circuit Court, it should be noted, for example, that in 2011 there were 674 weeks of sittings in venues outside Dublin. This increased to 767 weeks in 2012 and the President of the Circuit Court plans to increase capacity to 888 weeks during 2013, a 30% increase over 2011. The additional weeks will be provided across crime, family law and civil matters. In addition, six specialist judges of the Circuit Court were appointed in July to deal with the new work arising as a result of the Personal Insolvency Act 2012. Scheduled sittings of the District Court continued this year during the months of August and September and the President continues to target judicial resources at the areas experiencing longest waiting times.
In relation to the High Court, the President of the High Court keeps waiting times under continuous review and has introduced a number of initiatives including the reorganisation of sittings of the High Court outside Dublin and arranging for additional court sittings during court recesses. The delegation to court officials of administrative functions previously dealt with by High Court judges has also increased judicial availability for trial work. These initiatives continue to be reviewed and expanded. During September, the President of the High Court scheduled additional sittings with a view to maintaining and reducing waiting times or facilitating urgent hearings. A total of 32 Judges sat for the additional sittings and 1016 orders were made. The majority of High Court Lists, with the exception of the Asylum list, had prior to September relatively short waiting times and the September sittings have maintained or reduced those times . Twenty cases from the Asylum list were fully disposed of during these additional sittings. In respect of the Court of Criminal Appeal, I understand that the Chief Justice, in consultation with the President of the High Court, convened 9 additional sittings during September and the first week of October to deal with sentence appeals/undue leniency applications. A total of 55 such cases have been allocated hearing dates comprising 36 sentence appeals and 19 undue leniency applications.
During the last three weeks of the Summer Recess the Supreme Court dealt with 10 appeals; judgment was reserved in five of those cases. In addition, the Court dealt with 4 motions. All judges sat in benches of three throughout the period. Although considerable efforts are being made to manage the waiting times, the issue of capacity in the Supreme Court can only be fully resolved through the introduction of the Court of Appeal, which will now be established following the successful outcome of the referendum on the proposed Thirty-third Amendment of the Constitution (Court of Appeal) Bill. Following the appointment of two additional Supreme Court Judges on 17 October, the Supreme Court has begun to sit in two panels and the list for the remainder of the current term sittings has been fixed on that basis. It is anticipated that the Supreme Court will continue to sit in two panels into 2014. The backlog that has accumulated in the Supreme Court over the past number of years is such that, while there will be some immediate improvement over the coming year, it will take a longer period to reduce the waiting time for the hearing of appeals to a more appropriate level.
