Oireachtas grilling due over plan to close court

The Courts Service has been summoned to appear before the Oireachtas Justice Committee about its proposal to close a courthouse in Co Cork.

Members of the West Cork Bar Association (WCBA) have welcomed the move as they have also taken a judicial review to the High Court against the proposal to close Skibbereen District Court.

Oireachtas Justice Committee chairman David Stanton decided to summons the Courts Service after he was lobbied by TD Jim Daly who said it was a false economy because it would cost the public and State considerably more to hold the sittings in Clonakilty.

Seventy-seven courts have been closed in the State since 2008 and seven have been closed in recent years in West Cork, stretching from Kinsale to Castletownbere.

WCBA president, Colette McCarthy, said solicitors in the region were vehemently opposed to the closure of the Skibbereen court, which was proposed earlier this year by the Courts Service.

“The proposal is that once Clonakilty Courthouse is renovated, the court in Skibbereen will move there.

“We have costed this, and the savings the Court Service will make are minuscule compared to the effect the closure will have on people in West Cork.

“The Courts Services only pays a small amount of money to hold sittings there as the building is owned by the county council,” Ms McCarthy said. She said such a move would particularly hit the poor and people involved in family law cases.

“If somebody is living on Sherkin Island and wants to get a barring order, they will have to travel all the way to Clonakilty if this is allowed to go ahead.”

She also said that solicitors in the region were suspicious that the Courts Service eventually wanted to centralise all court sittings to Cork City.

“They’re closing down rural Ireland,” Ms McCarthy added.

Mr Daly says he did not believe the proposed savings, reported to be in the region of €12,000 per annum, associated with the closing of the courthouse would materialise “as such a move will inevitably lead to increased costs for solicitors acting for clients on Free Legal Aid and for costs involved in requiring gardaí to attend the Clonakilty sittings.”

He said he was also concerned about the security of Skibbereen if this was allowed to go ahead. “The gardaí there will now have to appear in court in another town, which will leave the town of Skibbereen with reduced Garda resources for extended periods of time,” Mr Daly said.

“It might save the Courts Service some money in the short term, but ultimately society and the taxpayer will end up sharing an increased cost.”