Services at the Criminal Courts of Justice, including window-cleaning, security and maintenance, cost €846,000 a month, the Courts Service has said.
The cost to the State for the overall design, build, maintenance and provision of support services for the modernised criminal courts complex will top €604 million at the current rate by the time it comes into the ownership of the Courts Service in 2035.
The building at Parkgate Street in Dublin 8 is the largest courts project undertaken in the history of the State. The award-winning construction is 11 storeys high and provides 23,000 square metres space with 450 rooms and 22 courts.
The project was delivered through a public-private partnership. The contract with Amber Infrastructure included its design, construction and fit-out costs as well as maintenance and replacement of equipment and furniture, and services including cleaning and security. The total monthly outlay, including design and build costs, is €1.8 million.
When the courts complex was officially opened in November 2009, the figure put on all-inclusive costs over the 28-year period of the contract was €291 million net.
Asked by The Irish Times about the costs through the Freedom of Information Acts, the Courts Service said capital, financing and insurance costs accounted for 53 per cent of the €1.8 million monthly charge, while 47 per cent covered services and replacement and maintenance of all furniture and equipment. It also said the monthly payment was subject to indexation.
Cleaning windows
Asked for details on the cost of one element of the servicing costs, window-cleaning, the Courts Service said it was not invoiced directly for such services, it did not deal directly with the company which cleaned the windows and did not hold the records sought.
Amber Infrastructure and its subcontractors G4S manage the services required to maintain building and deal with the service providers including those providing window-cleaning services. The windows are cleaned by specialists who abseil down the façade.
“The cost of constructing and maintaining including cleaning a largely glass external façade would have been built into the pricing of the tender submitted by the successful consortium headed by Amber Infrastructure,” the Courts Service said.
