The newly refurbished Cork courthouse will be open next January, the Public Accounts Committee was told yesterday.
The committee was discussing the Courts Service, and in particular the time and money taken to refurbish the Cork building. The service was asked why the cost had risen from an estimated €6.35 million in 1995 to €26 million today.
The chief executive of the Courts Service, Mr P.J. Fitzpatrick, said the original estimate was inherited from Cork City Council by the Courts Service, which was set up only in 1999.
The original estimate was not based on any specific plan, he said. It was on a much smaller scale than the refurbishments now envisaged and did not include the cost of a design team, capital contributions, site investigations, furniture, fittings or contingency. Nor did it include the 60 per cent inflation in construction costs.
The new building will include a whole new floor of office accommodation, judges' chambers and lawyers' rooms, seven courtrooms (rather than the three originally planned), victim support rooms, jury rooms, conference rooms, holding cells with an underground tunnel for prisoners, a modern IT network and video conferencing facilities.
Mr Fitzpartick was asked why the cost of renting temporary accommodation for the courts had trebled over five years. He said that in 1999 Cork City Council had entered into a lease agreement with the owner of a warehouse at Camden Quay in the city centre for two years, at an annual rent of €600,000. This included a refurbishment cost of €400,000 a year, leaving the cost of rent at €200,000.
When the lease expired in 2001 the need for temporary accommodation remained, and the Courts Service had to meet it. However, the refurbishment component of the annual rent was not referred to in the lease. Instead the whole amount of €600,000 was entered under "rent".
In addition, it was very difficult to find alternative accommodation for the courts in Cork city centre, and these premises had already been refurbished to meet the essential needs of the courts.
Presenting figures to the committee, he said that the total cost of the lease and the fit-out from 1999 to 2005 would be €6.467 million over the six years.