Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I agree with what the Minister said about the new post-Covid landscape presenting many new opportunities. Many court hearings will be quicker and easier, with fewer prisoners and more video links and staggered times. We have been calling for staggered hearings in Kerry for a long time to prevent the congregation of defendants and in order that prisoners would not all have to be put into prison vans at 6.30 a.m. or 7 a.m. to be taken together to the courthouse. There would also be more flexibility regarding adjournments.

I am not going to pull any rabbit out of the hat for the Minister but rather raise the opportunities that these issues present. There may be a new way of thinking about rural courthouses in particular. While a decision was taken by the building section of the Courts Service in respect of Tralee courthouse, there is a new emphasis on town centres and a rural plan in the programme for Government. Perhaps the Minister could examine the matter some day when she is on her way back to County Meath. The heritage section of the OPW is located in Trim. Could somebody from that section or an architect in the OPW take a fresh look at Tralee courthouse and consider, in light of all the changes, being more flexible about keeping it in the current location as opposed to moving it somewhere? I acknowledge that the Minister gave me time on this issue a few weeks ago and I thank her for that. Perhaps she could ask somebody to take a fresh look at the issue to see whether the courthouse, which has been there for 180 years, could be kept in the same place.