Solicitors criticise plans to close Dublin courts

There will be far fewer gardaí available for normal duties if plans to close four suburban courthouses in Dublin go ahead, the group representing Dublin solicitors has claimed.

The Dublin Solicitors Bar Association, which has 3,000 members, said the proposed closure of District Courts in Tallaght, Dún Laoghaire, Balbriggan and Swords would not save money for the State. It also took issue with Minister for Finance Michael Noonan for saying the legal profession had resisted all change.

The association claimed there would be “substantially” fewer gardaí available for normal policing duties in the affected suburbs due to the extra time they would spend in Blanchardstown and at the Criminal Courts of Justice on Parkgate Street, where District Court sittings will continue. It said conviction rates would drop as a result of witnesses being “unable or unwilling” to travel to these venues, while local businesses would suffer in the affected suburbs.

“The closures do not achieve a financial benefit for the State and they will, we believe, result in increased expenditure for a poorer service when you consider the increased costs for the gardaí, loss of Garda time and the increased costs and inconvenience for court users,” the association said in a statement.

The Courts Service has said the proposals, which will be decided on by its board in September, will result in improved services in courtrooms equipped with facilities and support services that could not be provided in suburban courthouses. However, the solicitors’ association said it was unclear whether the Courts Service had fully costed the effects of the closures or examined the “wider social costs” they entailed.

“The closures will reduce access to justice for the users of the District Court system, many of whom are the most vulnerable in society, such as single mothers seeking maintenance for their children,” it said. They would have to attend the court office in the city centre to apply for legal aid and then appear in court on at least one more occasion, it added. “These ill-considered reforms to the District Court . . . will put the family, criminal and civil systems in Dublin city centre under severe pressure if enacted.”

The Law Society, which represents all solicitors, said earlier this week that courthouse closures had reached an unjustifiable level and now posed a threat to "the very fabric of our justice system".

In response, Mr Noonan said lawyers were “a very conservative profession” and that “things have to move on”.