No funding has been set aside for an anticipated new county courthouse for Kerry in budget 2024, the chief executive of the Courts Service has informed the Kerry law society this weekend.
The news has come as a shock to legal circles in Kerry, which has been awaiting the transfer of a county council site in Tralee to the courts service.
The courts service agreed to purchase a half-acre site on the western side of Tralee for €160,000 over a year ago.
The law society in Kerry had recently already expressed its frustration that "a straightforward purchase" was taking so long.
"The entire courts infrastructure across Kerry is grossly inadequate," the society said this weekend, calling on Education Minister Norma Foley, TD for Kerry to advocate on behalf of courts services across the county.
The family law service is now at risk and looks set to be transferred to Limerick to comply with the terms of the new family courts legislation, the law society in Kerry said.
"It now seems that for years to come the people who use the Courts complexes in Kerry will be forced to endure Dickensian conditions," Tralee solicitor Canice Walsh, said this weekend.
Mr Walsh, who spearheads the subcommittee for the new courthouse, said it will now take "a minimum of two years" for a new courts complex in Tralee to kickstart.
The town is among the very last in the entire country to see its facilities upgraded - neighbouring Cork and Limerick have had substantial investments and new court complexes.
Reporting by Anne Lucey
