Average waiting times for legal hearings last year ranged from six months for the Supreme Court to a year for the Central Criminal Court, according to the first annual report of the Courts Service.
It also shows that courts generated £15.3 million in fees for the State. The service collected fines totalling £7.8 million.
The Courts Service was set up in November 1999 to take over the management of courts. It supports the judiciary and has drawn up a strategic plan to ensure better court buildings and privacy for court-users. The report gives details of 50 refurbishment projects.
It was presented last night to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr O'Donoghue, by the Chief Justice and chairman of the Courts Service Board, Mr Justice Keane.
Between August 1999 and the end of July 2000, 53,171 indictable offences were dealt with summarily by the District Court. Just under 12,000 of these offences led to imprisonment, while 4,320 resulted in fines and 2,089 led to community service. Probation, peace bonds and cases dismissed accounted for 34,970 decisions. £3.6 million was collected in bail money.
Court fees totalled £15.3 million, with £7.4 million of this going to the Revenue Commissioners and £7.9 million to the Exchequer. Such fees include payments by individuals lodging documents to courts and those collected on behalf of the Land Registry and the Revenue Commissioners.
The service collected £7.8 million in fines from offenders, including £4.6 million in motoring fines.
The report shows that average waiting times for hearing of cases in November 2000 were about six months for the Supreme Court, nine to 12 months for the Court of Criminal Appeal, 10 months for the Special Criminal Court and 11 months to a year for the Central Criminal Court.