Ms Angela Denning:

It is our intention to build a family law complex on the Hammond Lane site. When the site was acquired by the Office of Public Works, OPW, drawings were done to maximise its use. They included a complex of 21 or 22 family law court rooms, the children's court and facilities for the Supreme Court. Those plans came in at €141 million. Currently, the Department of Justice and Equality has an envelope for PPP projects of €150 million. Of that, €80 million has been allocated to the Courts Service and €70 million has been allocated to the Garda for three Garda stations. We asked the OPW to redraw the plans for Hammond Lane using €80 million only. The first drawing that came back provided for 12 or 13 family law court rooms. The Courts Service board rejected that earlier this year. Subsequently, the Department asked us in late July to include the children's court in the €80 million. At the last Courts Service buildings committee and board meeting, the drawings came back to us from the OPW. They would accommodate between eight and ten court rooms, including the children's court, for €80 million. The Courts Service board considered that that would not be good value or accommodate our current requirement for family law court rooms in Dublin.

Since we own various other properties around Dublin, we have now asked the OPW to see whether if, in the balance of the Courts Service's estate, the children's court could be accommodated somewhere else and to give us a price as to how much a renovated building would cost. We have also asked it to see what we could do with Hammond Lane for the €80 million, given that we have a number of other priorities. For example, the lease on our headquarters at Phoenix House will be up shortly and the staff located there will have to be accommodated somewhere else.

We would like to maximise Hammond Lane for the purposes of family law. To say that family law facilities in Dublin are appalling is not an overstatement. We would like to do our best for family law users. That is our priority. We have a building in Smithfield and own the old traffic court building next to it. We are trying to see whether we can do something with those two in terms of the children's court.

This matter will come back to the next board meeting in December. I hope that the OPW will revert to us in the meantime. It is our intention to proceed with a family law building on Hammond Lane. The difference between us and the Department is the €80 million as opposed to the €141 million that would develop the entire site.