Kenneally raises Waterford Courthouse with head of court services

The renovation and extension of Waterford Courthouse has been raised with the Head of the Courts Service by local TD Brendan Kenneally. Deputy Kenneally outlined to Brendan Ryan, Chief Executive of the Courts Service, the urgent need for Waterford Courthouse to be redeveloped after it recently emerged that it has the longest waiting list for cases to come before the district court in the country.

Deputy Kenneally, who is Chairman of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, was meeting with Mr. Ryan while on an inspection of the new criminal court facilities in Dublin. A new 23,000 square metre complex adjacent to the Pheonix Park housing 22 courtrooms has been built and it will act as the new home for the Court of Criminal Appeal, Special Criminal Court, Central Criminal Court as well as the District Courts.

Speaking about his meeting with Mr. Ryan, Deputy Kenneally said, "While it was good to see the fantastic new criminal court facilities they have in Dublin it emphasised all the more the need for a new courthouse in Waterford. Waterford may not need to process more than 200,000 criminal cases a year as is the case with the new Dublin facility but we do have a bad backlog of cases, longer than any other courthouse in the country."

"I outlined this in the strongest possible terms to Mr. Ryan during the course of our meeting. Waterford badly needs a new courthouse and we can't afford to have our court cases delayed any longer."

"Mr. Ryan indicated that he was aware of the problem and did say that he was happy that the plans for the court would be completed before Christmas. I will follow up on this further and keep the pressure on Mr. Ryan and the Courts Service. We do not want Waterford to suffer any more delays and any more backlog," Deputy Kenneally concluded.