Kerry County Council will be asked to vote tomorrow on the sale of a key council-owned site to the Courts Service to allow a new county courthouse to be built.
Around €20 million will be invested by the Courts Service in a new complex if councillors vote in favour of the proposal by council management.
The vote is before a full council meeting.
Kerry Law Society has made a public appeal to all 33 councillors to back the sale of the 0.202 hectares at the Island of Geese site, a former bacon factory, gifted to the council by Kerry Group.
The existing 1830s courthouse at Ashe Street no longer hosts major trials and has no family law or other modern facilities.
Courts offices have already moved from the building and much court business now takes place outside the county in Limerick and Cork.
Disagreement over location as well as a strong desire to retain the existing imperial style courthouse has delayed plans for a new Tralee complex.
Solicitor and Sinn Féin TD Pa Daly said the existing building on Ashe Street can be refurbished and surrounding buildings bought and repurposed as offices and consultation rooms.
There are strong heritage and environmental grounds to retain the existing building as a functioning courthouse he said, pointing to the refurbishment of the Kilkenny complex.
The public also is divided. A public consultation was held on the Island of Geese site after it was gifted by Kerry Group to Tralee, and the people favoured a mix of social, amenity and commercial uses.
Former factory workers too do not want a courthouse on the site.
Independent Tralee councillor Sam Locke said a courthouse is "not what the people of Tralee want".
However, Tralee Fine Gael Councillor Jim Finucane said the facilities in the existing courthouse "do not recognise the dignity of the human person".
Tralee will not get an opportunity again for many years and there is already an economic cost with people having to leave the county for the administration of justice, he said.
"Any time we lost a service in the past, we never got it back," Mr Finucane said.
Meanwhile, the courthouse committee of Kerry Law Society in a statement this weekend said it was "appealing one last time to the elected members of Kerry County Council to vote in favour of the sale".
"We fear that the consequences of a vote against will be an unmitigated disaster for the county as a whole.
"We accept that some are wholly opposed to any proposal other than a development of the Ashe Street complex. Many of our own members also have deep attachments to the existing building. However, all those who are familiar with the existing building are aware that it is wholly and utterly inadequate. Retaining it in its current condition is not a runner," said solicitor Canice Walsh.
