Minister for Justice supports calls for Limerick Courthouse to be used to 'maximum capacity'

The Minister for Justice says any decision to introduce permanent sittings of the Central Criminal Court in Limerick are a matter for the judiciary and the Courts Service but that she would be supportive of such a move.

Helen McEntee made her comments during a visit to Moyross earlier this week, where she launched a new multimillion euro Community Safety Fund.

While the Central Criminal Court, which deals with rape and murder cases, has successfully sat in Limerick on several occasions in the past, sittings have been listed on a case-by-case basis.

Legal practitioners, gardai and victim support groups have long-called for the court to sit at Limerick Courthouse, Mulgrave Street on a permanent basis - given the costs and the drain on resources of having to attend lengthy trials in Dublin.

There are six courtrooms and state-of-the-art facilities for lawyers, judges and jurors at the criminal courts complex on Mulgrave Street, which opened in 2018 and which facilitates the hearing of tens of thousands of cases every year.

The Limerick Leader/Limerick Live understands one possibility is that permanent sittings of the Central Criminal Court could start at the facility as early as October of this year, with an announcement to be made over the summer.

However, when asked about the possibility of such a move, Minister McEntee would only say: “Obviously the sitting of courts is a role for the President [of the court] to decide when they happen. I think it is really important that where we have new infrastructure and court buildings that they are used to the maximum capacity in particular, where you have very difficult trials, such as sexual or domestic violence cases, victims can attend those trials closer and nearer to home." 

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The minister added that she is fully supportive of efforts to ensure that buildings and facilities such as Limerick Courthouse, Mulgrave Street are used to their maximum capacity.

“I think it is really important that the local court is used in so far as possible but how those resources are allocated and who is sitting where and when is obviously a matter for the President of the court," she said.

Ms McEntee's comments come ahead of the retirement, in the coming weeks, of Judge Tom O'Donnell who has presided over sittings of Limerick Circuit Court for over a decade.

Judge Dermot Sheehan was recently assigned to the Cork Circuit meaning there will be two vacancies in Limerick to be filled this summer.

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