€10m State-owned plot avoids vacant-site fine

Justice minister Helen McEntee has previously announced that €15.4m would be allocated from the Courts Service’s annual budget towards the completion of courthouse capital projects. Picture: PA

One of the State’s most notable vacant sites was leased temporarily last year to a private developer, avoiding a fine associated with inclusion on the vacant sites register.

The plot, at Hammond Lane near Smithfield in north Dublin, has been the proposed location of the new Family Courts complex since 2012.