EXTRA court accommodation in Dublin is to be provided at the former Richmond Hospital, the Minister for Justice said.
Mrs Owen said other options for courts were being explored and the possibility of providing accommodation on the Four Courts site was being examined.
The Minister was speaking during the debate on the Courts Bill, which allows for the appointment of three extra Circuit Court judges. It passed all stages.
Mrs Owen said the Law Reform Commission in last year's report on the bail laws had said one way in which bail offending could be reduced was by shortening the length of time persons were at liberty before trial.
The commission had concluded that the appointment of more judges with appropriate court staff and back up services would address the current situation where cases which were ready to proceed had to wait their turn because there was no judge to deal with them.
She was satisfied the appointment of more Circuit Court judges would help to address the problems caused by the length of time available to people remanded on bail in which to commit offences. To that extent, the Bill formed part of the Government's constitutional and legislative response to the problem of offending while on bail.
Mrs Owen said active consideration was being given to the Law Reform Commission report on family courts which examined the type of judicial and courts structure that would be most suitable for dealing with family law cases. The recommendations straddled the responsibilities of her Department and the Department of Equality and Law Reform.
She said she had put much emphasis on reform of the courts since becoming Minister for Justice by way of tackling immediate problems and implementing a longer term development strategy.
The benefits of those reforms, along with other initiatives in the criminal justice system, would ensure for the future that the courts and other key elements of the system could respond effectively to changing circumstances generally and developments on crime in particular.