Courts at tipping point as staff cuts delay criminal trials

Severe staff cuts and rising workloads have led to “increasing and unacceptable delays” in the hearing of serious criminal trials and domestic violence applications, the chief executive of the Courts Service has conceded.

Brendan Ryan warned that the service had reached a “tipping point”, with court staff in numerous offices placed under “considerable and unsustainable pressure”.

He welcomed the 1.6% increase in the Courts Service’s budget for 2016, which will allow for 30 additional staff. But the recruitment is against the background of a 16% cut in the service’s workforce, from 1,080 in 2009 to 900 in 2014, a loss of 180 staff.

Mr Ryan told the Oireachtas justice committee that waiting times in the Central Criminal Court (which deals with rapes and murders) had stretched to 17 months, and in the Special Criminal Court (which deals with terrorist offences) to 19 months.

In addition, waiting times for domestic-violence applications were 14 weeks.

Mr Ryan said he “made it clear” to the Department of Justice that the planned new Family Law and Children Courts structure required “huge investment”.

He said that the lack of funding for IT was the “biggest risk factor” he faced and said it was a “huge concern” for him.

Mr Ryan said the service had experienced “very severe reductions in funding and staff” over the last six years — with a 16% reduction in staff, double that of the civil service average.

He said the staff cuts coincided with an increase in workloads, particularly in possession cases, where the increases were nine-fold.

In addition, there had been an increase in the complexity and length of court hearings, resulting in a 10% increase in court sittings.

“This placed considerable, and unsustainable, pressure on court staff in a number of offices, which has been a cause of ongoing concern,” Mr Ryan said.

He said staff were not able to support additional court sittings.

“This, unfortunately, has led to increasing and unacceptable delays in the hearing of cases, particularly serious criminal trials and domestic-violence applications in Dublin. There is no doubt that the Court Service had reached a ‘tipping point’.”

Mr Ryan said the funding for 2016, while it was not all that was sought, would allow for 30 more staff.

He said seven would go into Dolphin House family court and he hoped the waiting time “would go down significantly”.

He said the president of the High Court had appointed a fifth judge to the Central Criminal Court, which should “eat into waiting times”. He said the Oireachtas had approved a second Special Criminal Court, which was expected to start early next year.

Mr Ryan said his concern regarding the new Family Law Court structure was that it would be “appropriately resourced”. He said the service had gone through “torrid years of cuts” and he had “made it clear” to the department that the Family Law Court required “huge investment”.

He said the service had an IT budget of €4.8m in each of the last five years when, he said, they required a minimum of €6.5m. The service had applied for a further €2m, but had not received “a single extra penny”. He said they had to bridge the gap by taking money from the capital building budget.