by Tens of thousands court summonses are backlogged in the Irish court system because the pandemic prevented them from being dealt with.
Figures released to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland show 95,000 summonses, which are legal documents that subpoena people to court, are stuck in the court system.
The Covid-19 pandemic led to the scheduling of summonses for hearing dates being stopped by the court service from March to the end of July.
The Court Service said the delays happened because the numbers of people in court needed to be reduced because of Covid-19.
The highest backlog of summonses was in mid-October when it reached 122,000.
From July, the Court Service began processing summonses and clearing a back log of 101,000 summonses, but as it did 4,600 new summonses arrived into the system every week.
Compared to other years the backlog of 95,000 summonses is unprecedented. The Court Service confirmed backlogs do not usually occur as summonses are dealt with continuously from month to month and from one year to the next.
Sinn Féin Justice Spokesperson Martin Kenny will question Minister for Justice Helen McEntee about the issue in the Dáil today.
Mr Kenny is calling for more resources for the court system.
“It has a lot of implications for the legal system and the services of both our solicitors and out judiciary. I will be asking the Minister what plan she has to deal with this to ensure that there are adequate resources there and that there is additional funding if necessary to provide those resources wherever they are needed across the whole service the length and breadth of the country,” said Mr Kenny.
Last week, in response to a parliamentary question by Mr Kenny, the Minister said she recognised there is a built up of summonses.
“I am informed that the pandemic led to a cessation of scheduling summonses by the Courts Service from March to the end of July. When scheduling restarted, a backlog of applications for summonses had built up.,” Ms McEntee said.
“The Courts Service is working with An Garda Síochána to implement a plan to clear this backlog over the coming months and have these matters before the Courts at the earliest possible opportunity.”
Padraig O’Connell, a Killarney-based solicitor who specialises in criminal law, told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that efforts to reduce backlogs have not trickled down fully to Kerry’s district courts.
“There people out there who haven’t received their summonses and as the dogs on the street know justice delayed is justice denied,” said Mr O’Connell.
Tom O’Malley, senior lecturer in law at NUI Galway, says the cases arising from the summonses could go ahead in principle.
“All of those cases that we are talking about could at least in theory be heard. In some of the cases there may be arguments made that the accused person be somewhat prejudiced as a result of the delay,” Mr O’Malley said.
He added that “in general terms if there is significant delay” a court has to power to strike out a case.
Peter Mullan, Director of Operations Circuit and District Court Services, said a combination of scheduling, increased court time, working with the judiciary and gardaí helped reduce the backlog of summonses.
The court service has increased its efforts to decrease the backlog with 55,000 summonses scheduled for court since mid-October.
