The OPW completed the enabling, investigative and entablature repairs works to the Four Courts dome at the end of July and the scaffold that facilitated that phase of investigations and repairs will be dismantled during August and September.

However, a further, final phase of repair works is still needed for the decorative stone capitals which support the dome and are likely to begin in autumn 2022.

In a statement this morning, the OPW said the investigative findings will need to be reviewed and the project will go out to tender in early 2022.

The costs for the works to the end of 2021 are anticipated to amount to €5.8 million, with scaffolding costs accounting for nearly one third of the sum.