Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 18 January 2024
247. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Justice if she is aware of backlogs in the Probate Office and the effect that this has on business; the action being taken to address this; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2186/24]
View answerAs the Deputy is aware as Minister for Justice, I have no role in the exercise of Probate functions.
The Probate Office is an office of the High Court, and management of the courts is the responsibility of the judiciary and Courts Service, which are independent in exercising their functions under the Courts Service Act 1998 and given the separation of powers in the Constitution. Probate functions are also carried out by County Registrars at District Probate Registries in 14 provincial court offices. The Courts Service has a dedicated email address for the provision of information to members of the Houses of the Oireachtas at: oireachtasenquiries@courts.ie.
I am, however, advised by the Courts Service that, as part of the organisation's Modernisation Programme, a proposal to digitally transform the Probate process has been identified and a budget has been allocated to the Courts Service for this development.
The eProbate project will deliver a facility to submit and track applications for Grants of Representation online via a public facing portal. This new digital offering is currently in the early stages of development and will continue to be developed throughout 2024 with an expected public launch in early 2025.
The public facing portal will act as a single point of contact for users to submit and track their applications through the entire process. The electronic submission of applications through the online portal, combined with automated validation of key information at submission time, will enable faster and more efficient processing of applications, with the aim of reducing waiting times.
At the same time, the Courts Service is aware of its need to reduce waiting times while the eProbate project is underway. In this regard, it is prioritising the recruitment of additional staff to help in this task.
