Mr. Brendan Ryan:

I will begin and then hand over to Mr. Coyle, head of operations in the Circuit Courts and the District Courts, who is better placed to answer.

We have a building brief that has been developed since 2002 with the Office of Public Works. It is a work in progress. There has been much consultation on the design of courthouses and courtrooms regarding segregation, where people sit and accessibility and this consultation is ongoing. We hope the contract for the excellent project in Mullingar will be signed within two weeks. The project will follow our brief and which the legal practitioners were involved in designing. The Courts Service of Ireland has a standing building committee and it is their remit to ensure the views of the Bar Council of Ireland and the Law Society of Ireland which are represented on the committee on the design of court buildings are taken into account as much as possible. Sometimes their views cannot be taken on board, given that we must take the overall view on board.