Tullamore court hears call for more judges as trials backlog grows

WITH a potential 24 jury trials in the pipeline at Portlaoise Circuit Court alone, a judge has called for further appointments to the bench.

Speaking in Tullamore, where Portlaoise Circuit Court is sitting, Judge Keenan Johnson said the lack of judges is “totally unsatisfactory”.

Judge Johnson said that in Dublin dates for trials are being given as far as 2024 and while delays caused by Covid-19 restrictions are partly to blame, the backlog is also because of the “scarcity” of judges.

He asked if “another 10 judges” would be needed to deal with the volume of work.

During a call-over of the criminal list on Tuesday morning, Judge Johnson adjourned numerous cases to another call-over on May 16 saying that “hopefully at that stage” the Government will have appointed further Circuit Court judges.

When the defence counsel in one case asked for a special sitting to be arranged to try an accused, Judge Johnson said there would be no point in him doing so because “there is no judge available”.

“I'd love to fix a special session to deal with a lot of the cases but I can't.”

As several barristers indicated that trials of various lengths – including some lasting at least two weeks – would be required, Judge Johnson remarked: “It does strike me looking at this list that nobody seems to appreciate the benefit of a plea.”