Judgments handed down in courts across the State will soon be available on the Internet, beginning with Supreme Court rulings.
The development is made possible by the creation of a Courts Service Website which, although still in its initial phase of development, contains information on the jurisdiction of each court and a legal diary updated daily.
In the long term the site will allow the legal profession and general public to transact business with the Courts Service over the Web. "This is some way down the road, but is very much on the agenda," the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr O'Donoghue, said, inaugurating the website yesterday.
Those behind the initiative also hope to provide a schools/ educational section on the website aimed at national and second-level students.
The event marks the start of the modernisation of the Courts Service, which began on November 9th. "We have come a long way in a short time with our programme of modernisation of the courts. Clearly, we still have a big programme of work to complete, but developments like this today signal our intention to move on apace with this programme," the Minister added.
The Chief Justice and chairman of the Courts Service Board, Mr Justice Hamilton, said that at an early stage in the change process within the courts it was recognised that there was a deficit in the provision of information. The website, he hoped, would bridge this gap.
On the establishment of the Courts Service earlier this month he said the major changes which lay ahead were ambitious but achievable.
Mr Mitch Wallis, project manager of Exselan Computer Systems, the company which developed the site, said it would ensure the honouring of a time-honoured principle that justice must not only be done, but be seen to be done.
The website can be reached at www.courts.ie