The UK division of the Australian firm Babcock and Brown has been selected to build the new criminal court complex in Dublin through a public-private partnership (PPP), according to the Courts Service.
The investment fund arm of the same firm is in talks with Eircom over a possible takeover.
The UK division specialises in PPPs, according to a spokesman for the company, and does about £1 billion (€1.46 billion) worth of this work in the UK every year, mainly building schools and public utilities. In Australia the company is also involved in PPPs, reflecting its investors' interest in infrastructural development, he said.
The decision to build a criminal courts complex through a PPP, on a site at the junction of Parkgate Street and Infirmary Road, beside the entrance to the Phoenix Park, was announced by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell in November 2004. The complex is expected to be operational by 2009 and to cost more than €100 million.
Last May the Minister consulted with members of the construction sector about tendering for the project. A shortlist was drawn up last October. The Courts Service announced yesterday it had selected Babcock and Brown as the preferred tenderer. It will now enter detailed negotiations with the firm. It is hoped these will be completed by the end of July.
The complex will centralise on one site all criminal court hearings in the District, Circuit and Central Criminal Court (a division of the High Court). It will accommodate up to 70 Courts Service staff who will administer the courts.
It is intended that the facilities offered by the new complex will overcome the difficulties, security and otherwise, of running criminal trials in a number of sites around Dublin. In particular, it will mean an end to the practice of trailing those accused of criminal offences in handcuffs through public areas in and around the Four Courts.
The facilities envisaged include 16 jury courtrooms and six non-jury courtrooms; judges' chambers; consultation rooms; public waiting areas; victim support rooms and ancillary facilities; a large jury assembly space in a secure area, able to cater for up to 400 people, and containing separate kitchen and restaurant facilities; facilities for prosecution and defence witnesses, including vulnerable witnesses; legal practitioners' rooms with facilities including a video link to prisons.
Other institutions involved in the criminal justice system will also be catered for, including the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Garda and the Probation and Welfare Service. There will be a media room and a small broadcast studio.