James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their very informative opening statements. I have a number of questions and I will focus on the contributions of Ms Denning and Ms Matthews. I will take off my Chair's hat for this interaction and be a little parochial. Ms Denning spoke about courthouses in other countries. I was quite interested, and it was probably also of interest to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, to hear her say certain buildings are left idle for large parts of the year. This is true. My concern is that other buildings are the opposite. They are at overcapacity. I am thinking about Naas Courthouse which is local to me. In recent years, the courthouse in Kilcock has closed. The courthouse in Newbridge was burned to the ground, allegedly by an aggrieved defendant. It is long gone. The courthouse in Athy works two Thursdays a month. It is not very often. Naas Courthouse serves a population of most of County Kildare and west Wicklow. According to the most recent statistics, in 2019 it served 17,000 cases and this does not include interlocutory motions. This makes it the fourth busiest district in the country after Limerick, Cork and Dublin. Limerick, Cork and Dublin all have more than one judge. I am given to understand they have a wider choice of venues and a number of courthouses. Put simply, the district is under severe pressure with the volume coming through a single judge and a single courthouse, bar Athy which is used twice a month. This single courthouse has no car parking. It has a common entrance for witnesses, defendants, practitioners, the judge, gardaí, accused parties and all the rest. The whole spectrum of family, criminal and civil cases is heard there. The Circuit Court sits there in parallel with the District Court. On occasion, the High Court has sat there when it is on circuit. The Circuit Court and District Court sit most weeks in the year at the venue. It is under severe pressure. I understand there are some plans to expand it. It is desperately needed. Perhaps we might take this question first and Ms Denning will answer it. I will then have further questions.