Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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1. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality to provide an update on the upgrading of Tralee courthouse. [17367/24]

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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My question to the Minister pertains to the built heritage of Tralee town courts service and the future of business in Tralee town centre. Will the Minister provide an update on the upgrading plans, if there are any, for Tralee Courthouse or court facilities?

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will be aware that the provision of improved court facilities at Tralee is one of the Courts Service projects included in the national development plan, NDP. The existing courthouse on Ashe Street in Tralee comprises only two courtrooms and it lacks the facilities one would expect to find in a modern county town courthouse. I am informed the plan is for a new courthouse comprising four courtrooms and related facilities that are necessary to meet future requirements. As the Deputy knows, there is not sufficient space within the existing site to provide a courthouse building on the scale envisaged.

As we have previously discussed, in December 2023 the Courts Service completed the purchase of a portion of the Island of Geese site from Kerry County Council for the sum of €160,000. The Courts Service is currently being registered as owner of the site with the Property Registration Authority. A modern court facility will be built on this site. The Island of Geese site represents a great opportunity to develop a modern, fit-for-purpose courthouse in Tralee. Ahead of the next phase of the NDP, the Courts Service will seek to advance design work on the new courthouse. This will ensure that once funding becomes available, the Courts Service will be in a position to move quickly.

In budget 2024, €185 million was allocated to the Courts Vote overall, including capital funding of €67 million. This sum covers public private partnership, PPP, payments for eight courthouses as well as funding for the significant technological upgrades taking place across the courts, including the ongoing Wi-Fi upgrade and video court expansion.

The Government has invested substantial additional resources into the Courts Service in recent years and I can assure the Deputy that the Government will continue to support the Courts Service in its work to create an environment where justice can be administered efficiently and accessibly for all citizens.

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister for the reply. The Minister is absolutely correct to say there only two courtrooms in the current building and the plans they have are for four. There has been a big development recently in that An Post has recently obtained planning permission for a sorting depot on the outskirts of Tralee town. All along when we were asking for improved facilities on the existing site, we were being told that it was shoehorned into a particular place, there were no facilities for expansion and that was the end of the argument. The Minister is correct to say that the conveyancing work is going through and the design work is there but the crucial part of the Minister's answer is "once funding becomes available". The answer to the Minister's answer is that no funding is available either this year or next year or the year after for Tralee Courthouse. That is my understanding. That is why the An Post depot becoming available presents a significant cost saving opportunity in compliance with Tralee town centre and the town centre first plan. It is also in compliance in the context of carbon footprint, which is obviously dear to the heart of the Government. In my view this should be taken into account when reconsidering the plan to relocate.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy has raised this with me recently in relation to the An Post site. I have inquired and have been informed by the Courts Service that the search for a suitable site has been ongoing. It has been challenging. This was prior to the completion of the sale of the Island of Geese site, which was back in December last year. It had been ongoing for many years stretching back to the 2000s, and during that period a number of sites were considered for the purpose of a courthouse. The An Post site was among the sites that were considered but it was not for sale during that period. Obviously only sites that were for sale could be considered.

It came to the Courts Service attention only as recently as March of this year that Kerry County Council granted planning permission for a new An Post delivery service unit at Monavalley in Tralee and that An Post may at some time in the future put its current premises behind the Ashe Street courthouse up for sale. We are talking about a lot of ifs and buts. We had looked at this and it was not up for sale. It is now potentially for sale but it is not yet up for sale and we have already bought a site.

It is not fair to say there is no money to develop it at all. There is no money in the capital plan to develop the actual building but there is money there to develop the plan so that when we reopen the NDP for 2027 onwards, we will be seeking funding and we will have progressed far enough to need it at that stage.

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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There are two points arising out of the Minister's answer. The first point is the budget for a new courthouse is about €18 million. The Minister referred to €160,000. That is a very small fraction. The second point is that the Minister mentioned the Island of Geese, which is the old Denny factory site right in the centre of town where it is proposed to put the new court building. That was gifted to Tralee Town Council back in 2014. Big plans were made for social housing and for a community centre. There were some 160 different suggestions as to what could be put in there but ten years later it is vacant and idle. There is nothing in there at the moment apart from a kind of a garden. Now is the opportunity. An Post has planning permission and it will be moving out by February of next year. The Department would save the State a lot of money. I know the Minister for Justice is not the Minister, Deputy Ryan, and that she does not have any control over what An Post chooses to do with its building, but I suggest that the Minister would ask the relevant Minister, I believe it is the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Ryan, if that portion of ground would be open for sale to the Courts Service. Then the site there at the moment could be used for another facility, perhaps for An Garda Síochána.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The challenge here is that the search for a site has been going on since the early 2000s. The site referred to by the Deputy was not for sale and it is actually not up for sale now. I appreciate that it might come up for sale at some point in the future. It is not up for sale now and we do have a site that has actually been acquired. It is a portion of the site and the decision was taken by Kerry County Council. It was voted on by the members. What they do with the rest of the site is obviously a matter for the local authority. Whatever decision is taken is up to it. We have a site and we now have the ability to get on with building and developing a new courthouse. We will develop those plans so that when it gets to the point where we can look at the ceilings again for 2027 and beyond for the NDP, we will have a plan and we have the site bought. Otherwise we would be waiting for a potential site to come up for sale that might not come up for sale. When we do not know exactly what the plans are, and having waited since 2000, to pause something we know we can progress now for something that might not come up I just do not see as the way forward and I do not see that as the ideal solution here.

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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If it was up for sale?

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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But it is not.