Riverbank Courthouse in Dublin, across the Liffey from the Four Courts, was specially established to allow the Circuit Court deal with family disputes primarily between estranged husbands and wives. There are two Circuit Courts in the building and a number of consultation rooms. This building, since it was first opened, has proved to be inadequate to meet the needs of the people who come there. On a daily basis there is often between 15 and 20 couples awaiting hearings of judicial separation cases, disputes over custody of children and also divorce proceedings, and the consultation facilities are grossly inadequate.
The problems relating to this building have been greatly exacerbated over the past two weeks. Effectively, the building has been deprived of heating and the conditions within the building can best be described as arctic. In the courtrooms in particular, it is practically impossible for business to be conducted to allow people sort out their problems.
The kernel of the difficulty is apparently that this building, on a nightly basis, is invaded by drug addicts who take up habitation in the boiler house of the building and spend their evening shooting heroin and taking other drugs. It has been a problem for the staff of the court building for some time that they have been finding needles in various locations. I understand it is also a problem for the judges who sit in the courts.
This problem has now reached ludicrous proportions. It appears that a courthouse opened to deal with sensitive and distressing family cases cannot be secured by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the Garda, or by the security firm which I understand is paid to secure the building, to prevent regular incursions into it by people who behave in an illegal manner, taking drugs, and who apparently, when the boiler house gets too hot, switch off the heating system. Apparently it is beyond the wit of the Office of Public Works or whoever is responsible for this heating system to either secure the building or to ensure, at the very minimum, that the heating system is put on at a sufficiently early time in the morning in the middle of winter to ensure that the building is functioning.
This is an extraordinary state of affairs. I want an explanation as to why the building cannot be secured. I want an explanation as to what is being done to exclude drug addicts from the building. I want an explanation as to what will be done to ensure that proper security is functioning in the building. I want a guarantee that the heating system will be reinstated and that it will work on a daily basis, not just on an occasional basis. The House is entitled to an explanation of this state of affairs from a Minister who made so much of the concept of zero tolerance prior to taking up office.
It is a tribute to the staff of this courthouse, to the judges who sit and, in fairness, to the lawyers also that they have continued sittings in these appalling conditions. In the context of my making a declaration of interest, I am one of the lawyers who occasionally represents clients in these courts. We all know husbands and wives who have found themselves in court because their marriages have broken down under great pressure. They are greatly distressed. They are particularly upset on the day when the court case is being dealt with. They are entitled to have reasonable, humane, warm facilities in which they can await their court hearing, and they are entitled to be in a courtroom that is habitable and is not so cold that people are literally shaking with the cold. Judges, lawyers and husbands and wives are all shaking with the cold. I hope the Minister can shed some light on why this problem has been allowed to fester and give a guarantee that it will be immediately addressed, if it has not been addressed by now. I first sought to raise this issue on the Adjournment last Tuesday. I am grateful to be able to do so and I hope the fact that it has been on the agenda for a possible Adjournment debate has resulted in some remedial action being taken yesterday or today.
