Martin Kenny
Question:5. Deputy Martin Kenny asked the Minister for Justice if he can provide an update on the courts modernisation programme. [8001/23]
View answerThursday, 16 February 2023
Questions (5)
Oral answers (6 contributions)
Could the Minister provide an update on the courts modernisation programme and what work is being done in that respect? Many court buildings around the country are not up to a sufficient standard. Some of them are, as excellent work has been done in some places. Technology is something on which we can make vast improvements, which would assist a great deal in being able to have a more effective and efficient system.
I thank Deputy Kenny for raising this important matter. An independent, impartial and efficient Judiciary and courts system is critical to our democracy. The Government will work with the Courts Service and the Judiciary to deliver a number of important commitments in the programme for Government, which will help ensure that we have a modern Courts Service. This includes enacting a Family Court Bill to create a new dedicated Family Court within the existing court structure and to provide for court procedures that support a less adversarial resolution of disputes.
We plan to establish a new planning and environmental law court managed by specialist judges. We will implement reforms to the administration of civil justice in the State, covering matters such as the more efficient and effective deployment of court and judicial resources.
My Department is committed to driving the modernisation and digital first agenda across the entire justice sector. This is reflected in the additional funding of €2.5 million provided in budget 2023 for the courts modernisation programme. This builds on significant investment in recent years.
The Courts Service modernisation programme is a ten-year programme which will deliver a new operating model for the Courts Service designed around the user, with simplified and standardised services and accessible data to inform decisions, all delivered through digital solutions. I welcome in particular the commitment set out by the Courts Service in its Corporate Strategic Plan 2021-2023, to maximise the use of digital technologies to provide an improved and user-centred service. This commitment is integral to making our justice system work better for everyone by improving systems and increasing efficiencies.
The Courts Service engages with the Judiciary, a wide range of stakeholders and court users as these improved services are developed. Significant progress has already been made in introducing digital technologies that improve access to justice and provide a better and user-centred service.
Towards the end of 2020, the Courts Service committed an investment in excess of €2.2 million to expand the number of courtrooms that are technology enabled. These courtrooms support remote and hybrid hearings and allow parties, witnesses, prisoners, or An Garda Síochána, to dial in remotely to a physical courtroom and to support digital evidence display. The project brought the number of up-to-date technology courtrooms from 55 in 2020 to 118 at the end of 2022.
I am aware that much work has been done in many areas around the country to modernise the Courts Service and to bring courtrooms up to the required standard. We understand that it is a ten-year plan. However, some work could be done much faster than that to improve the situation in regard to many court buildings that do not have adequate meeting rooms, space, or facilities for barristers and solicitors to be able to deal with their clients. It is an ongoing problem, especially where victims of crime are in very close proximity to the accused or to perpetrators in many cases. Much of our discussion this morning has been on domestic and sexual violence. In those circumstances, as part of the Government's zero-tolerance strategy, there should be zero tolerance in that area as well to ensure that we have the correct space and accommodation for people so that they will not be re-traumatised when they enter the court system. The current buildings are an impediment to that and work must be done to make sure that happens.
I concur with the Deputy on the importance of having appropriate facilities. I practised family law in the old courthouse in Wexford. It was conducted in a public sphere where people were also queuing to pay their motor tax. We now have a new court in Wexford town which has dramatically changed the situation for people in difficult circumstances. We must see that right across the entire country. That is part of the national development plan. The Department of Justice is very much focused on getting all of those facilities up to speed so that people can have consultations and dealings in a private manner, as should be the case, right across the country.
The digitisation of courtrooms is also important to facilitate witnesses or expert witnesses who may be in another part of the country or even abroad to be brought into the courtroom using such technology. It happens in some cases but there is not enough of it. A mechanism must be put in place to ensure that can happen. It would speed up the process. Sometimes court cases are delayed or postponed simply because the expertise that is needed at a particular time cannot be accessed. There are solutions to all of this and they must be examined. Modernising court buildings is part of that, but another part is that we must put in place the technology in them to be able to deliver. It has been slow to happen. Great advances were made during Covid, or at least there was talk of great advances being made, but I am not sure how much of that is true. We must examine the modernisation of the system, not just to have better spaces but to have a more effective space so that people can get access to justice quicker, more effectively and efficiently and also at a more affordable cost, which is a big issue in regard to access to justice.
I agree with the Deputy not only about having the physical spaces but having modernisation through technology. That is crucial. We have seen what can be done during Covid in terms of the courts and advancing and speeding up the use of technology. We need to see more of that. The enabling of video technology in courtrooms is part of the courts modernisation programme, as well as the training piece. Courts can use the technology for expert witnesses as well perhaps to provide their evidence from a distance so that court cases are not adjourned because witnesses are unavailable.
Speaking from my own experience, I have seen the impact of court cases having to be adjourned because an important key witness was not available.
The management of court cases will always have to remain in the hands of the Judiciary. There may be times when it is simply necessary to have a witness in court on a particular day in order that he or she can be examined by the relevant parties. I agree with the Deputy that we need to get this technology rolled out quicker. That is definitely a priority for the Department.