Resolution of courthouse row imminent
Following five years of negotiations, the courts service has offered to buy land from Killarney Town Council which will facilitate an extension to the damp-ridden building. The long delay in coming to an agreement has cost the taxpayer well over €100,000.
Killarney District Court staff transferred to other offices in the town five years ago at a cost of €23,000 a year.
One of the issues to be resolved is the acquisition of a 12-metre section of an adjoining car park, owned by the council, for a courthouse extension. Bird’s Fairground Amusements have had the use of this strip for six weeks every summer.
Birds have used that bit of property for decades and, it is understood, the amusement company will have the use of another public space, a short distance away, in the future.
Once the courts service and the council reach agreement on the sale of the land, it is expected work on the extension should proceed fairly quickly.
A spokesperson for the courts service said they had written to the council in the past week about furthering the project.
Killarney Courthouse, which was last refurbished in the 1970s, is the venue for District and Circuit Court sittings and inquests.
