The Gazette 1974

including the President of the court, by the recem appointment of two additional "temporary" justices- The question of appointing a further "temporary justice is at present being examined. While the appointment of extra judges is a most important contribution to improving the situation, the procedural machinery in the Courts must be e x a m i n e d to see how it can be changed or streamlined, or both) so as to ensure the most efficient discharge of court business. I have, therefore, as indicated earlier, a r r a n g e d for an urgent study to be made of some of the r e p o r ts of the Committee on Court Practice and P r o c e d u r e which contain recommendations and suggest chang eS that could help considerably in improving the situa- tion. The accelerated growth in the volume of Court busi- ness in recent years has had its greatest impact 111 Dublin. One of the effects of this has been to c r e a t e serious Court accommodation problems. Pressures on Court accommodation There are plans to erect a large complex Court buildings on a site that has been acquired at Smithfield, Dublin and, as a temporary measure, t0 provide, on another site in the vicinity of the FoU r Courts, urgently needed accommodation for the Dublin Circuit Court and for the children's Court. It had bed 1 expected that by now the temporary additional accom- modation would have been built and ready for occupa* tion but unfortunately, certain difficulties arose, which) I am confident, will be resolved very shortly. I am nov v hopeful that this very urgently needed accommodation 1 will be available in about a year's time. In the mean' time every effort has been, and is being, made to relieve the accommodation pres ures. For example, temporal prefabricated offices have been provided in Chancer} Street for the District Court staff; existing accommoda- tion has been rearranged to provide more office space- accommodation beside the Four Courts has been pr°* vided on a temporary basis for use as an addition^ 1 District Court for "traffic" cases; the President of the District Court has made a determination the effect 0' which is to divert more Metropolitan District Court business to Dún Laoghaire; and an additional court has been provided for the Circuit Court from existing accommodation in the Four Courts. Dublin is not, of course, the only area in which there are serious court accommodation problems. Problems 01 an acute nature have arisen elsewhere. The business of the District Court in the provinces was disrupted last year by industrial action taken b} District Court Clerks in pursuit of a claim for paV parity with their Dublin colleagues. I am glad to be able to report that a basis for the settlement of th e claim has since been agreed with the staff. Briefly, the basis of the settlement is a productivity scheme, invoW' ing the reorganisation of the provincial District Court office and staffing structure. The Land Registry In the Land Registry, the upward trend in the volume of work of recent years has continued; the number of applications for registration increased frofl 1 52,700 in 1972 to 58,000 in 1973. This represents a; 1 increase of approximately 11 per cent over the 197* figure. The arrears of work while still very high de- creased by 12 per cent during 1973. I am aware that delays in registration are causing considerable hardship 100

coming year to see what changes can be effected. This will probably involve the Courts and in this regard I might mention that I have indicated to the Judiciary that I would welcome visits to our prisons by those who have not already visited them. Under the Criminal Justice Act, 1960, I have con- siderable power to allow prisoners conditional release or what is commonly known as parole. I can attach conditions to this release requiring the prisoner to re- port back at weekends and by virtue of this power, which is used widely, can introduce variations in the sentences as mentioned above. The decision will have to be taken as to whether the proper person to introduce the variation is the Court imposing the sentence or the Minister who supervises it or some third party—some independent authority. The system of conditional releases is operating very successfully up to now and last year up to 600 condi- tional releases were granted. The system permits con- siderable flexibility to allow releases for work, inter- views, compassionate family reasons et cetera, and it is effective because it is flexible. The Courts We will all agree that persons who appear before our Courts, whether they are there because they have civil business to transact or because they have come into conflict with the law, are entitled to have their cases dealt with expeditiously and fairly. It is, there- fore, of paramount importance that our Courts should have all the resources necessary to the expeditious and fair discharge of the business coming before them. The continuous growth over the years in the volume of Court Business has accelerated in recent years espe- cially, as one might expect, in Dublin. The number of cases set down for hearing in the High Court has doubled in the past four years. The overall volume of Circuit Court business has increased by 46 per cent in the past ten years; in the Dublin Circuit Court criminal trials have increased by 67 per cent and Criminal Appeals by 119 per cent in that period. The business in the Dublin Metropolitan District Court has increased by 70 per cent in the past ten years, the increase since 1970 being more than 30 per cent. Increase in Court Business This sharp increase in court business, coupled with the fact that the full time of a member of the judiciary from each of the three courts concerned is taken up with sittings of the Special Criminal Court, had over- taxed the time of the judiciary, with the result that serious arrears have arisen in the High and Circuit Courts and a few sittings of the District Court had to be cancelled. Being very concerned at this situation I arranged, as a first step to remedy it, to provide additional judges and justices. The Courts Act, 1973, provided for an increase from six to seven in the statutory number of ordinary judges of the High Court and an additional judge has now been appointed to that court. Since 1971. the Circuit Court has had 11 judges including one "Temporary" judge. With the recent appointment of an additional "temporary" judge that number has now been increased to 12. The question of increasing the statutory number of ten "permanent" Circuit Court judges, including the President of the court, is at pre- sent being examined. The number of justices serving the District Court has been increased from 35 to 37,