The Courts Service has signed contracts for four new courthouses and the refurbishment of three others at a cost of €135 million – the largest single investment in regional court structures in the history of the State.
The projects in Cork, Letterkenny, Wexford, Limerick, Mullingar, Drogheda and Waterford, are to be delivered by way of a public private partnership.
The Chief Justice Ms Justice Susan Denham said the projects would bring “world-class court facilities to each city or town” and create a future which promised “a great change in the axis of activity in the legal world” of several of the venues.
Work on the construction of the projects will begin early next month and will take up to 24 months to complete.
Court business in the new and refurbished courthouses will begin in 2017. About 700 jobs will be created during the construction period.
Ms Justice Denham, who is also the chairwoman of the board of the Courts Service, thanked Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald for her assistance with the project.
