Yesterday, in her remarks on her retirement, Ms Justice Irvine commented on how the lack of judges was hampering access to justice. We see this at every level of our justice system. A solicitor, Mr. Gareth Noble, reported on a family list in the District Court in Meath which could not be cleared despite the single judge working a significant number of extra hours. One case involved a man who was making his fourth attempt to lodge an application for an order for access to his children. This was his fourth time going into the court and, once again, his case was not reached. We do not have enough judges for this man to be able to get even a hearing on access to his children. This is hampering justice at every single level. Will the Government use the budget to invest in significant numbers of extra judges so that we can have the effective access to justice that is essential in any democracy?

A review of this issue is under way. The Deputy will know as well as I do that it is not as simple as providing extra judges. We need to make sure there is court space and the court staff required to enable judges to do their job. We need to make sure that, if there are going to be additional judges and Courts Service staff, we see an improvement in the length of time it takes people to get through the courts system. I was a member of the Government that established the Court of Appeal. We did that on the basis that it would clear backlogs but it just moved the backlog from the Supreme Court to the Court of Appeal. I do not regret doing that but we always have to be a little sceptical when we are told that more staff and resources will mean better results for people. I know some solicitors are critical of our judges and say they work shorter hours and shorter terms than judges in other countries while getting paid more. We have to look at the issue in the round.