Major changes in the way the courts system operates are likely to be recommended by a new working group set up by the Courts Service.
The Chief Justice and chairman of the Courts Service Board, Mr Justice Keane, yesterday announced the setting up of a working group on the jurisdiction of the courts under the chairmanship of Supreme Court judge Mr Justice Fennelly.
Its terms of reference are to carry out a root-and-branch examination of the organisation of the courts system, the first since it was set up in 1924, and to recommend any necessary changes to allow for the fair, expeditious and economic administration of justice.
The recommendations could extend to proposing the setting up of new courts and major changes in the allocation of jurisdiction at every level, according to Mr Justice Fennelly. These recommendations will eventually be put to the Government so that any necessary legislation can be enacted.
However, as the making of recommendations to government is part of the remit of the Courts Service, any such recommendations are unlikely to be ignored by the Executive.
Mr Justice Keane said that proposals for constitutional change were not excluded, but the Constitution dealt with the courts "in broad brush strokes", so such change was unlikely to be needed.
The Chief Justice said that the Irish courts system had undergone no comprehensive critical analysis since it was set up in 1924, to see how far it fell short of achieving the presumed objectives of any such system.
"These objectives, in my opinion, should be to provide the citizen with a system of civil and criminal justice that is accessible to all and which functions in a manner that is impartial, open and expeditious," he said. "I wonder can that be said of our present system?"
Among the many reasons for urgent reform was the inefficiency of the current system, he said.
"Scarce resources are not best used, judges and staff work long into the evening to keep up with an ever-expanding and complex case-load, and . . . the public are asked to wait long periods for certain types of cases to be heard."
It was not just a matter of too few judges, he said, although Ireland had the lowest proportion of judges per head of population of any country in the EU.
Mr Justice Keane also said there was no obvious reason why murder and rape could be tried only in the Central Criminal Court, while the same did not apply to kidnapping, manslaughter, robbery with violence and massive fraud.
Society was changing and the demands on the courts system were increasing and becoming more complex, with more than 600,000 cases being processed in the year 2000, he said.
Mr Justice Fennelly said the working group would be broadly representative of all bodies, both private and public, interested in or affected by the functioning of the courts. The Attorney General, the office of the DPP, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, the universities, the National Crime Council and Victim Support are all represented, along with the judiciary. In addition, submissions would be sought from the public.
The first issues to be examined would be those of the jurisdiction and volume of work affecting the criminal courts, he said.
"There, in particular, the Central Criminal Court and the Circuit Criminal Court have confronted an ever-increasing volume of crime. Persons accused before the Central Criminal Court face lengthy delays before trial."
He said he hoped an initial report on the criminal side of the courts system could be available within a year.