President opens new criminal courts

POMP AND ceremony accompanied the opening by President Mary McAleese of the new Criminal Courts of Justice building beside Phoenix Park in Dublin on Saturday. Mounted gardaí flanked the entrance as the Garda band played.

President McAleese said a “previously fairly unprepossessing corner of Dublin” had been altered irrevocably by the new building.

“The way in which justice is administered and experienced will be different,” she said.

The building had been designed to show respect for the widest range of users, she added.

Chief Justice Mr Justice John Murray said this was the first courthouse of such monumental proportions to be built since the foundation of the State. The previous major court building, the Four Courts, had “just ‘growed’ like Topsy”, few of its courtrooms were suitable for jury trials, and space had become cramped for both civil and criminal cases.

The proposals for the new complex were first mooted in May 2004 and many considered that the timescale for delivery of the project was “courageous”, he said.

The preferred bidder was chosen in June 2006 and the public-private partnership contract signed in May 2007, with the building due for completion in February 2010.

He paid tribute to the Courts Service’s former chief executive, P J Fitzpatrick, and his successor, Brendan Ryan, who had responsibility for supervising the project, completed ahead of schedule.

Mr Justice Murray also praised the positive manner in which Courts Service personnel had responded to the administrative and organisational changes involved.

Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said timing was important for the establishment of the Courts Service, which had been able to benefit from the availability of resources to invest in much-needed court refurbishment.

Praising the contribution of his predecessors, he said: “We are all birds of passage in public life and we can take pride in the part we have played in this building.”