James Lawless
Question:9. Deputy James Lawless asked the Minister for Justice if there are any plans to increase the number of judges; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26123/22]
View answerTuesday, 24 May 2022
Questions (9)
Oral answers (9 contributions)
I acknowledge a very productive session with the Minister today at the Joint Committee on Justice on the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2022, which will reform and transform the way we appoint judges going forward. However, there remains a significant gap between the numbers we have on the Bench and those of our European neighbours and international comparators. It is imperative that the Government does everything it can to address that.
Our priority is to ensure that the courts are resourced to administer justice efficiently and effectively for citizens in their access to justice. The Government endeavours to fill judicial vacancies at the earliest opportunity and a number of such vacancies have been filled in recent times. In order to bring more strategic focus to this, the Minister established a judicial planning working group in April 2021, in line with commitments in the programme for Government and the justice plan action to "Establish a working group to consider the number of and type of judges required to ensure the efficient administration of justice over the next five years". Any further judicial resourcing needs will ultimately be informed by the report and recommendations of this group.
To help inform the work of this group, the OECD was commissioned to prepare an independent review of judicial resources, including benchmarks against international comparators. Due to the complexity of evaluating the data and analysis underpinning the research, it has taken longer than originally anticipated for the OECD to complete its work. Its final report is expected shortly and the Minister has just received an interim progress report from the chair of the working group. The latest indications are that the group expects to produce its final report this autumn having considered the OECD research.
As the Deputy will be aware, in the interim, the Government has already provided additional resources to the High Court, where the number of judges was increased by five last year, from 37 to 42, with the enactment of the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2021. In addition, section 8 of the Act provided for the number of High Court judges to be exceeded by a further one, should the Government, at the request of the Minister, having consulted with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, form the opinion that it was necessary due to the volume of business and to ensure the efficient administration of justice. The Minister brought a memorandum to Government on 19 January 2022, with a recommendation to have that additional High Court post filled. With that appointment to the High Court, the complement of High Court judges is now six more than it was on 1 October 2021.
I acknowledge the good work the Minister of State is doing on the gambling regulation Bill, the report on which we published recently in the committee, along with the Minister and others. Judicial numbers is a concern that I may not have expected at the outset of this Dáil term. When we began hearings at the Joint Committee on Justice, almost without exception, the witnesses on a variety of topics and areas expressed a concern that the number of judges on the Bench was inadequate. This affects a number of areas in the judicial system, in terms of the administration of justice, trials waiting to be heard, victims of domestic violence waiting to get their day out and many others who cannot have their issues resolved because of the lack of judges.
I know that the numbers are quite low. Unfortunately, we rank towards the bottom of the European league table in terms of the number in the Judiciary per head of population. I appreciate that the Minister was out of action at the time, but I was concerned by a comment made by the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, in recent months about the effective cost of a High Court judge, that being the salary cost. It is approximately €100,000 to €150,000. That is a very populist and narrow way to approach the issue. We should be looking not at the salary of individuals but at the number divorces, criminal trials, legislative amendments and civil or commercial matters over which they will preside.
The Deputy is well over time with his response.
The cost of one salary per year pales into insignificance when compared with the cost of court sitting day after day for a full year. It is an unfortunate comparison and I hope it is not reflective of the Government's attitude.
The judicial planning working group is looking at the very things about which the Deputy is concerned. We will be using those data from the OECD to assess the need in terms of judges, at present and going forward, in order that we can have an evidence-based, informed understanding of the need we have for additional judges in this country. The working group's report will inform that and the Government's decision-making. I should point out that the recent appointments and expansion in the number of High Court judges represent one of the largest increases in judges in recent memory and a very significant investment by the State in judicial resources. Once that working group reports, it will give us a better foundation for assessing exactly what is needed in the State in terms of increasing the number of judges.
I welcome that response and the acknowledgement from the Government of the position. The statistics tell us that Ireland has 3.3 judges per 100,000 people, compared with an average of 21 judges per 100,000 people throughout the OECD and the EU. I know the Minister of State has acknowledged that in his response, which I welcome. It strikes me that in terms of the moves in recent years, such as the abolition of town councils by a previous Government and the moves away from subsidiarity and local representation, the moves away from judges per capita mean that decision-making and administration of justice, local government and even our administration of the powers over the people are being taken away, at every stage, from the people further back. We should not allow that to happen. It would be remiss of me not to mention Naas district, where one single judge presides over what is probably the busiest district in the country. Cork has four judges. Limerick has three judges and Dublin has multiple judges. However, Naas, which the numbers reflect as being one of the busiest districts in the commuter belt, if not the country, has a single judge presiding. I ask the Government to consider whether that needs to be tackled, perhaps with an additional judge for the Naas district.
I will support Deputy Lawless on that. In the past couple of weeks, I have spoken to many people in the legal profession. The consistent problem they kept bringing up, both in civil and criminal cases, was the long delays because of the absence of judges. One of the issues that was raised with me was how courts moving away from the small provincial towns to larger courts in different areas had an impact. Making sure we have enough judges to administer law effectively and efficiently is one of the problems. It is not efficient at present and that needs to be addressed.
The working group will inform and give us an evidence base. In the past, when we were assessing increasing the number of judges, it was done in an ad hoc manner. The purpose of what we are doing now is to make sure that we have an evidence-based assessment as to how many judges we need and trying to forward-plan into the future to have those judges, as we need them, when we need them. There will also be an interim report from this working group, which will be very much considered by the Government when it is provided.
Question No. 10 replied to with Written Answers.