asked the Minister for Justice if he has taken any steps to have suitable court accommodation provided to serve the District Court area of Rathfarnham, County Dublin: and, if so, the progress that has been made in the matter.
Written Answers. - Dublin Court Accommodation.
372.
Rathfarnham Courthouse is no longer adequate to cater for the volume of business in the District Court Area of Rathfarnham which has increased rapidly in recent years. The courtroom is too small, there is no waiting or consultation area and traffic noise inconveniences the court. Moreover the incorporation of Rathfarnham into the administrative area of Dublin Corporation has led to the anomalous position where the courthouse for an area most of which is in the administrative area of the county council is situated within the administrative area of the corporation.
My Department has been pressing Dublin County Council since 1974 to provide better courthouse facilities for the area but so far without success. The county council was unable to find a premises in its own administrative area which would serve as temporary accommodation and it maintains that it has no statutory authority to spend money on the acquisition of a building in the administrative area of the corporation. The most recent development was that my Department proposed that premises near the present courthouse, and within the administrative area of the corporation, might be leased. These premises could be adapted for use as temporary court accommodation by the Office of Public Works, with Dublin County Council paying an approximate portion of the cost of the adaptation work and of the rent. The proposal has not been accepted by the county council because they consider the proposed accommodation inadequate for the needs of the area. The whole matter will be discussed at a meeting later this month between county councillors and officers of my Department. The officers of my Department will be urging on the county councillors that the county council should accept my Department's latest proposal as a temporary solution because the plans for the future major road network and particularly public transport routes for the Rathfarnham/ Tallaght area as a whole are not yet sufficiently advanced to enable a decision to be taken regarding the siting of a permanent new courthouse or courthouses.
373.
asked the Minister for Justice if he is aware that the court accommodation at Kilmainham, Dublin is no longer adequate to cope with the volume of business now coming before the District Court there; and the steps he proposes to take to rectify the position.
I am aware that the court accommodation in Kilmainham Court-house is no longer adequate to cope with the volume of business now coming before the District Court there. The solution to this problem is to schedule a second sitting of the court for Kilmainham on at least some days every week. However, there is not sufficient court accommodation available in the courthouse at present to allow of simultaneous sittings.
As the Dublin County Council is responsible under the terms of the Courthouses (Provision and Maintenance) Act, 1935, for the provision of courthouse accommodation at Kilmainham, my Department wrote to the county council in December 1976 requesting that the accommodation at present used for library purposes in the courthouse be handed over for use as court accommodation. In reply, the county council have stated that they are agreeable in principle to surrendering the library accommodation for use as court accommodation. The county council, however, are having difficulty in obtaining suitable alternative accommodation for the library work now being carried out in Kilmainham Courthouse.
A meeting has been arranged for later this month between Dublin county councillors and officers of my Department to discuss court accommodation problems in Rathfarnham. I have directed the officers of my Department to raise the subject of the extra accommodation needed at Kilmainham with the councillors with a view to impressing on them the extreme urgency of making additional accommodation available for court purposes in Kilmainham.
As soon as additional accommodation becomes available in Kilmainham it is my intention to schedule a second sitting of the District Court for that venue on whatever number of days per week is required having regard to the volume of business to be dealt with at the venue.