Building due to start on new Family Law Court Complex in 2027

Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan said on Monday that the procurement process for the complex had entered its final stage.

More than 10 years since it was first announced, the Family Law Court Complex looks to be finally on its way with building due to start in early 2027.

Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan said on Monday that the procurement process for the complex – on the long-time idle site at Hammond Lane, near the Four Courts – had entered its final stage.

While no completion date has been provided by the department, it is expected, once construction begins, to take a number of years before being completed and fitted out.

Family law solicitor, Keith Walsh, who has been prominent over the decade in pushing for the facility, said the project has been beset by “delay after delay” since 2014 and that “not a sod” has been turned on the site.

He said this has meant that parents, families, witnesses, judges and solicitors have been left in “completely unsuitable and deeply unsatisfactory” conditions.

He said this has not only deprived people of “privacy and dignity” but have also placed individuals in potentially intimidating situations, such as in domestic violence cases.

Mr Walsh said the protracted delays in the building the family complex was exacerbated by a sharp increase in demand, with a 20% increase in total district court applications – from almost 53,000 in 2019 to nearly 64,000 in 2024.

He said this includes an almost doubling in childcare cases (11,457 to 21,797) and a 23% rise in domestic violence applications (20,501 to 25,270).

The purpose-built family complex will replace the family law facilities in central Dublin at Dolphin House, Phoenix House, Chancery Street courthouse and in the Four Courts.

Announcing the procurement, Minister O’Callaghan said: “I am extremely pleased to acknowledge the progress on the Dublin Family Courts PPP [Public Private Partnership] Project as it advances to the next stage in the procurement process."

He said the complex at Hammond Lane was “a key priority” of the Courts Service and his department under the National Development Plan. 

He said it was being procured by the National Development Finance Agency, in conjunction with the OPW.

“The recent publication of the tender documents marks the commencement of the next stage in the procurement process following the shortlisting of candidates which was announced in November 2024,” the minister said.

“Subject to successful completion of the procurement process current timescales envisage that construction will commence in early 2027.” 

In December 2014, the Irish Examiner reported that the then justice minister Frances Fitzgerald announced the location of the new Family Law Court as she stood outside the Hammond Lane site.

Beside her was then chief justice Susan Denham. 

The OPW had bought the site in 2000.

Mr Walsh said the project has been constantly delayed since – and that in 2019 the Bar Council and the Law Society launched a campaign ‘Courting Disaster’ to highlight the delays.

Mr Walsh said the Chancery Street courthouse, also known as the Bridewell, is a Victorian building, completely unsuitable to hear childcare applications, where Tusla and/or the HSE might be involved in taking children from their parents for their safety.

He said Dolphin House, which deals with family access and custody cases, and domestic violence applications, has been long regarded as overcrowded, with very little space for private consultations or keeping applicants for domestic orders away from the other party.

Mr Walsh said the people in the family courts were already going through a “stressful” and sometimes “traumatic” process and did not need the added stress and strain of being in overcrowded and delapidated buildings.

He said in Dolphin House people could be, physically, very close to partners in domestic abuse applications and the lack of dedicated meeting rooms meant sensitive discussions happened in the waiting area, on stairwells or out in the street.

“These people are already under pressure and in domestic violence cases, with witnesses, you have the possibility of intimidation,” Mr Walsh said.

“I’m not saying it happens but it is potentially a tinder box.” 

He said childcare cases were moved “temporarily” in 2016 to the Bridewell courts, with assurances it would be for a couple of years.

“Nine years later we are still there,” Mr Walsh said. 

“It just seems no one cares.” 

He said it could be some years before Hammond Lane is actually built but that, in the meantime, proper temporary facilities need to be put in place.