Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy has raised this with me recently in relation to the An Post site. I have inquired and have been informed by the Courts Service that the search for a suitable site has been ongoing. It has been challenging. This was prior to the completion of the sale of the Island of Geese site, which was back in December last year. It had been ongoing for many years stretching back to the 2000s, and during that period a number of sites were considered for the purpose of a courthouse. The An Post site was among the sites that were considered but it was not for sale during that period. Obviously only sites that were for sale could be considered.

It came to the Courts Service attention only as recently as March of this year that Kerry County Council granted planning permission for a new An Post delivery service unit at Monavalley in Tralee and that An Post may at some time in the future put its current premises behind the Ashe Street courthouse up for sale. We are talking about a lot of ifs and buts. We had looked at this and it was not up for sale. It is now potentially for sale but it is not yet up for sale and we have already bought a site.

It is not fair to say there is no money to develop it at all. There is no money in the capital plan to develop the actual building but there is money there to develop the plan so that when we reopen the NDP for 2027 onwards, we will be seeking funding and we will have progressed far enough to need it at that stage.

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