Public-private partnership deal struck in €135m project to build four new courthouses

The Courts Service of Ireland has signed a contract to deliver four new courthouses in Drogheda, Letterkenny, Limerick and Wexford, as well as courthouse improvements in Cork, Mullingar and Waterford.

Construction on the €135 million project is expected to start early in the New Year with a view to completing the new and refurbished buildings by December 2017.

Under the Courts Bundle Public-Private Partnership (PPP), the courthouses will be designed, built, financed and maintained for twenty five years by BAM PPP PGGM.

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald said: “This Government has proved itself to be one of the most reforming in the history of the State when it comes to the Courts and the legal system. It is only right that as we update our laws and legal systems that we also update our Courts infrastructure.

“This PPP project for the construction and redevelopment of regional courthouses represents a substantial investment in the modernisation of our Court facilities with project costs estimated to be €135 million which will provide an important boost to the local economies of seven regional cities and towns and it is expected that up to 700 new jobs are to be created during the period of construction. ”

Another PPP deal is yet to be completed for the delivery of a new “state-of-the-art” Family & Children’s Court complex at Hammond Lane in Dublin.