‘Dial-in’ video tech now enabled in 165 courts
The Courts Service enabled a further 29 courtrooms across the country with video technology last year, bringing the total to 165.
This allows parties to a case to ‘dial into’ proceedings from another location and allows for the display of digital evidence in courtrooms.
According to the service’s annual report for 2024, the Irish Prison Service continued to be a high-volume user of remote courtroom attendance, with 23,103 ‘dial-ins’ from prisons throughout the year.
The report outlined steps taken by the courts body to modernise its services last year – including equipping 190 judicial benches with the basics needed for using courtroom technology, such as power, network connectivity, and docking stations.
The Courts Service also improved the Wi-Fi availability in courthouses nationwide.
Unified case-management roll-out
The body says that it is continuing its efforts to replace around 150 legacy IT systems with a new internal unified case-management system (UCMS).
UCMS was rolled out last year to staff working on Circuit Court family proceedings, resulting in the closure of 27 unconnected legacy technology systems.
The annual report says that the courts body plans to advance work in other areas – including probate, the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court, and District Court family matters – over the coming year.
The service’s digital team also received approval last year to replace the two main legacy crime systems with UCMS, to be implemented over the next two years.
Courts Portal
The report says that “significant progress” has been made on a Courts Portal, which will become the public-facing view of the UCMS for the legal profession, lay litigants, and other parties.
It will allow new applications and other filings to be lodged, paid for, if required, and tracked online.
The portal for Circuit Court family-law applications in Dublin was launched last month.
The chair of the Courts Service board Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne told the report launch (7 July) that the body welcomed the recent adoption by the three jurisdictional rules committees of the Digital Court Rules.
“The digital rules will support the provision of improved online and digital services to users in the coming months and years,” she stated.
Work on estate ‘essential’
Ms Justice Dunne also told the launch that the work required to bring all the courts body’s estate up to an appropriate standard was “essential” and must continue.
“Modern facilities have been provided in places such as Cork, Limerick, Kilkenny and Letterkenny, to name a few, but this is an area where there are serious challenges to providing appropriate facilities for all court users in some areas,” she stated.
The report says that work to transfer the Hammond Lane site for the Family Courts project in Dublin to the Courts Service from the Office of Public Works is expected to be finalised this year.
Enabling works to excavate a small number of previously unexcavated parts of the site are also expected to be completed this year.
Shortlist
The shortlisting of candidates to deliver the project, which will be a public-private partnership, was completed in November.
Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan told the Dáil earlier this year that stage two of the procurement process would start “later this year”.
At the report’s launch, he said that we would see development at Hammond Lane “in the near future”.
Elsewhere in its estate, the Courts Service says that it is to explore permanent accommodation options for Swords and Balbriggan, as well as Galway – including the identification and assessment of potential sites.
While it holds sites for planned courthouse developments in Tralee, Wicklow, Portlaoise, Roscommon, and Naas, progress on these projects is dependent on funding under the National Development Plan.
Meanwhile, the Courts Service has said that Judge Mary Cashin will retire from the District Court on Thursday 24 July. Her last day of service will be 23 July.