The Courts Service has embarked on a £250 million refurbishment scheme to improve courthouse accommodation.
Mr P.J. Fitzpatrick, the service's chief executive, said yesterday that between £5 million and £6 million had already been designated for more than a dozen centres including Castlebar, Cork, Dundalk, Ennis, Longford, Monaghan, Nenagh and Trim.
He said work would start almost immediately in Sligo where he and the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, had signed a £5.5 million contract, and in Limerick.
Mr Fitzpatrick said the Courts Service was currently negotiating with Meath County Council about the provision of a courts centre in Navan, which has never had a courthouse and where the District Court currently sits in a community hall.
He said it was hoped the new courts centre would be incorporated as part of the civic buildings complex planned for Navan when a site is secured.
The Courts Service is planning, where possible, to incorporate new district courts in library and other civic developments by local authorities.
"In some areas district courts sit only once or twice a month, and in such cases huge expenditure on greensite developments would not be justified," Mr Fitzpatrick said.