Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 January 2018
513. Deputy John Deasy asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of persons here who have used the European small claims procedure to pursue a cross-Border civil or commercial claim since January 2009; the average monetary award upon judgment to date; and the average annual cost to the State of facilitating this avenue of redress. [54623/17]
View answerAs the Deputy is aware, under the provisions of the Courts Service Act 1998, management of the courts is the responsibility of the Courts Service, which is independent in exercising its functions, which include the provision of information on the courts system.
However, in order to be of assistance to the Deputy, I have had inquiries made and the Courts Service has informed me that it commenced collating data on the number of European Small Claims processed by the Small Claims Court where the Claimant was resident in Ireland in 2015 and so data is not available prior to 2015. The Courts Service has also informed me that the collation of data in respect of 2017 has not yet been completed.
The following table provides the data in relation to the number of European Small Claims received by the Small Claims Court in 2015 and 2016 where the Claimant was resident in Ireland and the details of decrees granted.
|
Year |
Small Claims Ireland to EU Applications Received |
Small Claims Ireland to EU Decrees Granted |
|
2015 |
80 |
24 |
|
2016 |
61 |
21 |
The Courts Service has advised that all European Small Claims are manually processed and that the value of decrees granted are not collated for statistical purposes. Therefore, the average monetary award upon judgment is not available. The Courts Service has also advised that the average annual cost to the State of facilitating this avenue of redress is not available.
I wish to inform the Deputy that I have asked my Department to engage further with the Courts Service on the issue of improving the information capability in relation to the European small claims procedure so as to facilitate analysis of its effectiveness on the ground.
