Keith Walsh SC

The Irish Times yesterday revealed that the Bar Council wrote to the Courts Service last November to raise concerns about violence in Dolphin House after a solicitor and a barrister were physically assaulted in two separate incidents.

Family law solicitor Keith Walsh SC told Irish Legal News that he was “not surprised” by the report “due to the unsuitable nature of the premises and the sheer number of litigants in the building”.

“This building was never suitable for a courthouse and is particularly unsuitable for private family law cases which deal with domestic violence cases, maintenance, child law, maintenance, access and custody disputes,” he said.

For a decade, the government has earmarked a site on Hammond Lane for the development of a new family courts complex which will replace the existing facilities for family law at Dolphin House, Chancery Street, Phoenix House and in the Four Courts.

However, the project has been subject to repeated delays. Work on the complex is not now expected to begin until 2026 and will not be completed until 2028 at the earliest.

Mr Walsh said: “There is currently a proposal in the Family Courts Bill to transfer divorce, separation and cohabitation cases down to the already overcrowded District Court and this would make this situation even worse.

“There is no prospect of the Hammond Lane facility being built in the near future and these violent incidents are unacceptable but illustrate the utter neglect of the family law courts under successive governments.

“Resources have been requested by the Law Society, the Bar Council for generations and these requests have fallen on deaf ears. The result is that the family courts are no longer places of safety for lawyers or litigants.”