Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 17: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform following the recent meeting of the Select Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights at which the estimates for his Department were considered the reason for the delay of a capital project for the State Forensic Laboratory; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46278/09]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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A key element of the criminal justice sector building programme is the provision of a new facility for the Forensic Science Laboratory. Notwithstanding current budgetary constraints, I can assure the House that the project remains a top priority, which is being advanced as expeditiously as possible by the Office of Public Works on behalf of my Department.

Having considered the various options for developing the project, including optimal site locations, it has been decided to relocate the Forensic Science Laboratory to a new purpose built facility on available State land at the Backweston Campus, Leixlip, which is already the location of the State Laboratory and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food laboratories. The site, which is fully serviced, is considered particularly suitable for a development of this type and scale, especially in terms of the potential for possible synergies between the expertise and resources of the various laboratories, and I am confident it is capable of facilitating the medium to long term requirements of the Forensic Science Laboratory. Most notably, the new laboratory will have the capacity to maintain and operate the proposed National DNA Database and the associated legislative provisions, which will shortly be brought before the Oireachtas in the context of the Criminal Justice (Forensic Evidence and DNA Database System) Bill.

The OPW has established a Project Team to deliver the project at the preferred location and I can inform the House that substantial progress is being made in the design and planning phase of the project. This stage is nearing completion and it is anticipated, subject to appropriate sanction and funding being made available, that the tendering process for construction will take place in early 2010. While conscious that funding for capital projects has been necessarily reduced across all Departments, I am anxious that the project should proceed to the market as speedily as possible so that full advantage can be taken of the current highly competitive trading environment in the construction sector.