The new Chief Justice has called for the urgent appointment of more judges to the Court of Appeal in order to address the "acute problem" it faces with its workload.
Mr Justice Frank Clarke said the workload of individual judges of the Court of Appeal was beyond what could reasonably be expected.
He said, leaving aside issues about the way judges are appointed, there was an urgent need to address aspects of the shortfall in numbers in the appeal courts as a matter of particular urgency.
In the short term, he said, some cases which had been transferred to the Court of Appeal would be returned to the Supreme Court to help with the problem.
In a speech at the Four Courts setting out his priorities for the legal year ahead, Mr Justice Clarke said the position of the judiciary in relation to some of the details in the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill and the Judicial Council Bill was well known.
However, he said it was wholly appropriate that judges make their views known on legislation which actually affects them, while recognising the legislation is ultimately a matter for the Oireachtas.
The Chief Justice said there was little point in having a good court system if a great many people found it difficult or even impossible to access it for practical reasons.
He said it had increasingly become the case that certain types of litigation were beyond the resources of many.
Mr Justice Clarke welcomed the establishment of a committee, chaired by the President of the High Court, to review procedures used in civil cases with the aim of increasing access to the courts.
He also said additional resources were needed to back up the judiciary.
Mr Justice Clarke said a small group would undertake a review of procedures in the Supreme Court since the Court of Appeal was established three years ago.
He said the group hoped to make recommendations for any changes in time for them to be implemented from 1 January.
The Chief Justice also said the IT section of the Courts Service had been particularly badly hit during the recession.
However he said it was now planned to increase the areas of the court process which were conducted either exclusively or very substantially online.
He said a working group had been established to implement a project to allow all applications for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court to be made and considered online.
Mr Justice Clarke also warned of the consequences of Brexit for the Irish legal system in the context of Europe wide judicial bodies, consulted by the European Commission and legislators. He said because of the difference between the legal systems used in continental Europe and those in the UK and Ireland, it was important to ensure the common law position was understood.
He said Ireland had, in the past, been able to rely on the "well-resourced" UK to take the lead in these situations.
After Brexit, he said, Ireland would become the biggest common law jurisdiction, and there would be a much greater burden on this country to ensure measures proposed at a European level would fit well into the legal system used here.
