A central Criminal Court judge has warned that the number of rape trials coming before the court has risen to such an extent that the situation is getting "out of control".
Mr Justice Carney said a new system for dealing with cases might have to be introduced unless the court received greater co-operation from barristers. Under that system a case would be heard by whatever judge was available, whether the parties in the case liked it or not.
The judge said the system would be unpopular with the Garda, barristers, witnesses and the Chief State Solicitor's office, but if the number of cases continued to get out of control the court would be forced to act.
Unless barristers co-operated in getting cases started and notified the court in advance when cases were not ready to proceed, the court would be driven into a system that nobody wanted.
Mr Justice Carney warned barristers that the court's function was to dispose of cases and "not to find reasons why cases shouldn't be disposed of". Referring to the rape trial list before the court, he said he was now fixing dates up to the year 2001.
His comments coincided with the disclosure that 133 rape trials and 25 rape sentences have been listed before the court up to March 2001. Forty-one murder trials are also listed. Seventy cases (including 51 allegations of rape) were before the court in 1997 and 106 (including 86 allegations of rape) last year. Up to September 23rd of this year, there were 177 cases on the court's list, including 131 allegations of rape.