The final design for Dublin's new €100 million criminal court complex will be unveiled next month, it was revealed tonight.
Expected to be open by 2009, it will be built on a site at the junction of Parkgate Street and Infirmary Road beside the entrance to Phoenix Park.
Comprising District, Circuit and Central Criminal courts it will centralise all criminal cases in 22 court rooms and include judges' chambers, consultation suites and victim support rooms.
The facilities, built under a public-private partnership, are being designed to overcome difficulties, security and otherwise, of running criminal trials at several sites across the capital. Up to 70 Courts Service staff will administer the courts.
Tánaiste and Justice Minister Michael McDowell said the development will free up space in the crowded Four Courts and allow for refurbishment there.
"I am delighted that this landmark project is coming to fruition," the Tánaiste said. "This is a major development Public Private Partnership which will provide all court users with state of the art, appropriate facilities in which to conduct the vital business of administering justice.
"Construction is due to start by the summer and the project will be completed by the end of 2009." It is understood the Four Courts will be used for mainly civil cases once the complex is open.
The facilities will include 16 jury courtrooms and six non-jury courtrooms; chambers; lawyers' consultation rooms; public waiting areas; victim support rooms and ancillary facilities.
The courthouse will also have a large jury assembly space in a secure area catering for up to 400 people with separate kitchen and restaurant facilities. Prosecution and defence witnesses, including vulnerable witnesses, will also have secure areas to wait for cases while lawyers' rooms will have modern facilities including video links to prisons.
A Courts Service spokesman said: "This building will see all the criminal business of the Dublin courts moved to a single central complex - which will have the most appropriate and flexible facilities available to deal with this high volume of important work."
The Director of Public Prosecutions will have offices in the new courthouse along with gardai and the Probation and Welfare Service while the court reporters will have a media room and a small broadcast studio. The plan was announced by Mr McDowell in November 2004 and last May it was announced the UK arm of Australian firm Babcock & Brown had secured the tender.