The State's single largest courts building project since the completion of the Four Courts in 1796, the €120 million Criminal Courts Complex for Dublin , will include a "great hall" and 22 courtrooms when it opens in about three years.
Details of the final design for the new circular building, to be located adjacent to the Phoenix Park, were unveiled at a ceremony attended by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell in Dublin yesterday evening. The Chief Justice, Mr Justice John Murray, officially launched the project.
He said it would be a "landmark building marking a key point at the boundary of urban Dublin with the Phoenix Park and further points west", and represented a "future which promises a great change in the axis of activity in our capital's legal quarter".
The 11-storey complex will be constructed on a site of almost 2½ acres (just over a hectare), with a floor area of approximately 25,000sq m and more than 450 rooms including 22 courts. Work on the site is expected to begin next week and will take 34 months.
It will eventually house the Court of Criminal Appeal, the Special Criminal Court, the Central Criminal Court, the Circuit Criminal Court, the District Courts and associated facilities.
The great hall of the new complex will be 40m in diameter, twice that of the Round Hall of the Four Courts building.
The complex, next to the quays on the corner of Parkgate Street and Infirmary Road, is being developed under a public- private partnership with global investment firm and Eircom owners Babcock and Brown.
Once the building is constructed, the Government will pay a monthly fee to Babcock and Brown for 25 years.
The total cost of the project, in current terms, will be €291 million when this contract runs out in 28 years. Some €120 million of this figure relates to construction costs.
Sixteen of the complex's 22 courtrooms will be jury courtrooms, with some allowing video conferencing, digital recording and electronic display of evidence, as well as greater visible and covert security measures.
The complex will include legal practitioners' rooms with video links to prisons, waiting areas and facilities for jurors and the media. Up to 100 prisoners will be accommodated in its cells, while kitchen and restaurant facilities will also be provided.
Another unique feature will be separate court facilities for individuals such as witnesses, jurors and the judiciary. Refurbishment of the Four Courts complex into a civil courts complex is expected to get under way once the new complex is operational.
This could include the construction of a "green area" in the section where parking spaces are currently provided within the Four Courts complex.
