Judge John Neilan has said District Court staff in Mullingar are overwhelmed with the volume of work they have to do.
He was speaking as he sought to adjourn public order charges against Oliver Dinnegan of 307 Dalton Park to a hearing date to be confiriming.
There are no further hearing dates available to the court at the moment and the judge said staff are finding it “extremely difficult to cope with the present volume of work”.
This is exacerbated because of the retirement of Chief Clerk Pat Kelly, who is taking holiday leave until the end of September when he will officially retire.
The judge later lamented the “loss of 40 years experience from Mr Kelly” whom he said cannot be replaced until he formally retires.
Meanwhile, he says staff numbers are down.
