Courts Service: A new court complex devoted to criminal cases will be built in Infirmary Road, near the Phoenix Park, the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, announced yesterday. Carol Coulter reports.
Funding for the new complex, to be built through a public-private partnership, formed part of the Estimates for the Department of Justice in 2005. The cost is likely to exceed €100 million.
The decision has been warmly welcomed by the Courts Service, which put forward a business plan for the new complex earlier this year.
"Over the past number of years a major need has emerged for a dedicated Criminal Court complex for Dublin," Mr P.J. Fitzpatrick, chief executive of the Courts Service, said, noting that almost 400,000 criminal matters were dealt with last year.
With the new complex, "the administration of justice in the State will be separated into two streams," for the first time, Mr McDowell said.
The 23-court room complex will deal with the work currently done in certain District Courts, the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, the Central Criminal Court and the Special Criminal Court.
This will then free up the Four Courts to deal entirely with civil business, while the extra space it will create there will improve facilities for family law, the Supreme Court and the High Court.
The new complex will allow accused persons to access the courts by underground, ending the current practice by which they are paraded through the open court areas in handcuffs.
Mr McDowell also said yesterday he intends to allow the Courts Service to provide its own courtroom security, thereby releasing gardaí from this duty.
The Minister also said he favours the break-up of the present Children's Court. "I don't want a single place where all the city's troubled youth hang around together," he said.