The leaked Denham report which recommends a separate agency to manage the courts is welcome in principle, as is the statement issued by the Minister for Justice this afternoon. Separate management for the courts is a feature of other jurisdictions and has long been recommended here. A separate agency to manage the courts would undoubtedly be in a position to arrange court business far better than the Department of Justice. It is now clear that the Department of Justice, no doubt motivated by political considerations, has avoided hard decisions in such matters as the rationalisation of court areas, the delimiting of court business, collection of fines, etc., which would have improved the efficiency of the system immeasurably.
For historical reasons, the responsibility for the courts is spread over a number of different areas. At present, the Department of Justice, the Chief Justice and the Presidents of the High, Circuit and District Courts, the Office of Public Works and the local authorities are involved in court administration. This ludicrous situation cannot be allowed to continue.
We, as a State, have allowed our court system to degenerate into a shambolic parody of a proper system. This is particularly evident in the family law area. For family law clients, justice is delayed and therefore denied virtually daily. The average waiting period for a judicial separation is two years. Family law clients are mostly women who suffer cruelly during their extended wait for justice. Some are living in physical fear and others are suffering great mental cruelty and distress. The damage caused to children in such relationships can be immense.
However, the problem is not confined to the family law area. The usual four to five year delay in non-family matters between a trial and facts which gave rise to it can result in witnesses having faulty recollection of the events on which the outcome of the trial will ultimately turn. This has undoubtedly led to a denial of justice in many cases. I know also of many litigants who have had to avail of medical treatment because they were stressed out during these extended waiting periods.
It would be an abuse of language to describe the physical condition of many courthouses outside Dublin as adequate or appropriate. Most court venues outside Dublin do not have adequate space or facilities. In many cases, opposing litigants are left sitting opposite each other on benches or in cold or draughty corridors. Adequate facilities for consultation between lawyers and their clients are the exception rather than the rule. Many courthouses have insufficient lighting, leaking roofs, ill-fitting windows, inadequate heating and do not even have basic toilet facilities. In many venues clients are forced to consult with their lawyers in the open air in all types of weather or, alternatively, in a crowded hallway a few feet from where the other party is consulting his or her lawyer about the same business.
We must not, however, delude ourselves that a separate agency to manage the courts will of itself be a panacea. The introduction of a separate management agency for the courts, while welcome in itself, must be accompanied by a proper commitment of resources. The creation of a separate agency to manage the Irish courts will do very little to lessen the hardship, trauma and misery which litigants are at present forced to endure unless accompanied by a proper and adequate commitment of resources.
I ask the Government tonight to commit itself to provide those resources, otherwise it will continue to condemn those citizens who resort to its courts to continue to endure a situation which is not only blatantly unconstitutional but fundamentally unchristian.
