Hammond Lane ‘may not meet escalating demand’
A prominent family-law solicitor has said he fears that Dublin's long planned family courthouse will not meet the demand for cases, when it is eventually built.
First announced in 2014, the complex was to be "shovel-ready, subject to planning and funding, by 2019,” Keith Walsh SC has pointed out.
Construction is not due to begin onsite until 2027 at the earliest, and to be completed in 2029, according to recent announcements.
The solicitor and long-time campaigner for building on the Hammond Lane site (small picture) said: “The current family-court buildings, which were only meant to be temporary, have now been in place for over ten years.
Unfair
“This is unfair on families, litigants, court staff, judges, witnesses, and lawyers that these important family-law cases are being held in buildings that are not suitable.
“The sooner that construction gets underway on Hammond Lane the better. My concern is that the increase in demand for family-law cases since 2018/19 means that this courthouse may be redundant before it is even constructed.
“How have we got ourselves into this position?” he asked.
In May 2019, then Chief Justice Frank Clarke’s views on the condition of the family courts in Dublin were reported in the press.
'Dreadful conditions'
Mr Justice Clarke told the Government that the family-law courts in Dublin required “the most urgent attention” and operated in “dreadful conditions”.
He said of Dolphin House that “the office block, carved out of the remains of the old Dolphin Hotel, provides wholly unsuitable facilities for what are inevitably difficult and delicate cases.”
The judge said many other premises in Dublin being used for family law were “not much better”.
Progress on the Hammond Lane site has been glacial, Keith Walsh SC pointed out, and the childcare courts have been in 'temporary' Victorian criminal courts in the Bridewell, behind Dublin’s Four Courts, since 2016.