IT IS a system creaking under the weight of cases, where county courts open when the trains arrive and close for the September harvest.
That was the picture of the Irish courts painted by the Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, as she presented a proposal to overhaul the system for the first time in over 70 years.
The Working Party on the Courts Commission recommendations include improving public address systems in courtrooms so people can hear what is going on, introducing a Charter of Court Users' Rights and improving communication with the media.
The primary recommendation of the Courts Commission, appointed by Mrs Owen in November, proposes putting the courts under one management body - a State agency to be called the Courts Service.
The Courts Service would coordinate the ownership and day to day running of the courts, currently shared between the Department of Justice, the Office of Public Works and the county councils.
The commission said a chief executive should be appointed by the Courts Service board. He or she would have the rank of a Departmental secretary, with a salary of £75,047. The 838 civil servants in the various bodies responsible for the courts would be brought under the umbrella of the Courts Service.
The commission recommended that a 15 member Courts Service board should have a majority of senior judicial members. However, yesterday the Government added the Courts Service chief executive (not yet appointed) as a 16th member.
The Courts Service would be accountable to the Oireachtas through the Minister for Justice for finance and administration but not for judicial decisions. This maintains the separation of powers and keeps the judiciary outside the sphere of political influence. The service would come under the control of the Comptroller and Auditor General.
The Courts Service Board would publish a three year plan for the Courts Service based on an agreed budget and an annual report on the performance of the body. It would also present information to the public, including education materials to schools, jurors and court users. The board would also publish a Charter for Court Users.
The report identified the fundamental problems with the court systems which have caused delays. It acknowledged the difficult working conditions of court staff. "The fact that the courts have managed to function as well as they have is due to the dedication of people over the last 70 years in operating the judicial arm of government.
The report said delays were a critical flaw in the courts system, they were expensive and raised special problems in criminal trials. Of the first 20 cases listed in the Supreme Court in February, the length of time between the High Court hearing and a Supreme Court date varied from 2 1/2 to eight years.
Personal injury cases in the High Court have an average delay of almost three years between the setting down of the case and its hearing.
In the Central Criminal Court and the High Court, criminal delays in a date of return for trial varied from two months to almost six years. Last December 16 murder trials were listed. Eight were adjourned, three adjourned with priority, two listed for trial and three had provisional trial dates fixed.
Of 40 rape trials listed, only seven had dates fixed for trial two had provisional dates, two were arraigned and 29 were adjourned. "The absence of judges and resources to proceed with these trials has serious repercussions within our society," said the report.
The commission recommended that all staff administering the courts should become staff of the new agency. Staff would operate on a unified, single stream and be redesignated as civil servants if they were not already designated as such.
"The civil servants who work for the Minister for Justice quite reasonably can see their first responsibility as being to the Minister and not to the judiciary ... The system has developed on an ad hoc basis, is inadequate and needs to be modernised.
"The changes proposed should not be imposed but negotiated and agreed through normal industrial relations channels."
The commission recommended that an information desk should be put into courts for the public. An executive legal officer to the Chief Justice should be appointed in an administrative role. "A portion of this officer's duties would be to organise information for the media.
It recommended establishing a long term plan for the Four Courts sites and said the centralisation of the courts on the site was important. It also recommended setting up a statistics unit.
According to the commission, some £45 million was needed to be spent on court buildings to bring them up to standard. A budget of £5.755 million had been allocated for renovation of provincial courthouses this year. All courthouses, apart from the Four Courts, are local authority owned.
The Criminal Legal Aid scheme, operated out of the Department of Justice, is expected to cost £9.322 million this year. Civil legal aid, under the Department of Equality and Law Reform, cost nearly £5 million in 1994.
The cost of the courts system is estimated at £46.7 million for last year, up from £24.7 million in 1990. These costs include salaries, building work, pensions, administration, legal aid law reporting and witness expenses. The overall estimates do not include the day to day cost of providing and maintaining court accommodation outside Dublin as it is not available.
The income from the court system, including court fees and percentages, is estimated at £10.3 million for last year, around the same level as 1990.
The rise in court costs and the freeze in court income means that the estimated net cost of the court system has risen from £13.8 million in 1990, to £36.4 million last year.
Rounding up the figure to £40 million, the Commission said it represents 0.28 per cent of total Government expenditure.
