Cork's main courthouse will reopen today following a €26 million refurbishment. Olivia Kelleher reports.
The courthouse on Washington Street closed in 1999. A temporary facility was established in a restored warehouse at Camden Quay at the cost of €760,000 a year in rent.
Members of the Southern Law Association frequently expressed their dissatisfaction with delays in the project and at one stage the Law Association Gazette referred to the temporary courthouse as "Cork's black hole of Calcutta". The provision of a new courthouse was delayed because of the tendering process and problems with the funding of it.
The refurbishment of the court house is the most extensive work on any court building in Ireland since the reconstruction of the Four Courts after the Civil War, according to the Courts Service.
It is expected the Central Criminal Court will sit in Cork later this year to hear murder and rape trials. The decision to hold Central Criminal Court business in Cork follows on from the success of similar moves in Limerick, Sligo and Ennis.