Lorraine Clifford-Lee (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is very welcome. I realise this is not his Department so I appreciate his taking the time to come and answer this on behalf of the Minister for Justice. My Commencement concerns the long-awaited family law court complex at Hammond Lane. We are long past needing a new family law court complex for Dublin. Dolphin House and Phoenix House are not fit for purpose. The court users are vulnerable people, including people who have suffered domestic violence and children who are entering the State's care and they are being dealt with in completely inadequate facilities. Not only is it inadequate for the court users, it is inadequate for the practitioners and for the judges. It is a very unsafe working environment. We have seen unfortunately, a number of instances in these courts down through the years. The State purchased the site at Hammond Lane in the late 1990s and we are still waiting for the family law court complex there. It was put into the programme for Government that it would be delivered within the lifetime of the Government. I was happy to see that because, since my election to the Seanad, I have been advocating for this, because I was a family law practitioner prior to entering politics and worked in that area every day.

Unfortunately, in August this year, The Irish Times reported that construction was not due to start until 2026 at the earliest and no opening date was set. This was completely baffling because, in 2021, the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, said it would be completed by 2026 at the latest. In June 2022, a preliminary business case was approved by the Government with the project to be delivered as part of a public-private partnership bundled to include Garda stations in Clonmel and Macroom. That was a welcome step forward. I put down a Commencement matter in October 2022, just over a year ago, and the Minister, Deputy McEntee told me the project was proceeding as expected with no delays envisaged. That was good news. However, in May 2023, it was announced that Clonmel and Macroom Garda stations would be decoupled from the Hammond Lane project and would proceed. Nothing was said about the progress of the Hammond Lane site. Clearly, problems were identified at this point.

What happened between my Commencement in October 2022 and May 2023 that dramatically altered the timeline? It was a short period of time. Something dramatic happened. We still do not know. Why did the Minister not see fit to give any explanation to the Government, the Dáil or the Seanad in May 2023 to explain why this decoupling was happening? We received confirmation or a quasi-confirmation in August 2023 that the Hammond Lane project would be dramatically set back. That news was sneaked out when these Houses were in recess. There was an unofficial report in The Irish Times with no direct quotes from the Minister. We still have no information on it. There has just been radio silence, with not a dicky bird from the Minister, about this. There can be every strategy under the sun to tackle the really important issues of gender-based violence, domestic violence, children in the care of the State, maintenance, access, custody and guardianship. We can say we are going to do everything on these, but if the important infrastructure is not delivered for the people of Dublin, strategies mean nothing. They are pointless statements. I am genuinely upset and frustrated with the Minister for Justice on this because there has been no explanation. I often think that because these proceedings are in camera,nobody really knows what goes on. They do not care what goes on. We are talking about extremely vulnerable families here. I hope the Minister of State can give me some insight as to what happened to the timelines.Hopefully, the people of Dublin will get some answer as to why this important piece of infrastructure has once again been tossed to the side.