Vol. 503 No. 3
485 Mr. Rabbitte asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the reason for the delay in hearing an application for a writ of habeas corpus made on 1 April 1998 by a person (details supplied) in Wheatfield Prison, Clondalkin; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9924/99]
I have been informed that the application in question was received in the central office of the High Court on 6 April 1998 and was processed in the usual way before being placed before a judge of the High Court. Consideration of this type of application is based on the written material submitted. The applicant was not present or legally represented during consideration of the application and this is the usual procedure. Following such consideration the application was refused on 14 May 1998.
By my direction my officials have inquired into the matter on foot of the Deputy's question. They have now established that, due to an administrative error, the applicant was not notified by the court of its decision. Such notification has now issued.
I regard such a system failure as very unfortunate. A serious view has to be taken, and is taken by me, of communications of this kind, affecting as they do the liberty of the person. I have directed my officials to make contact with relevant senior court staff in the central office to address the shortcoming exposed by this incident. The new courts IT programme should offer an opportunity to reduce if not eliminate human error of this kind in courts administration.
