Law Society could compel court upgrade

DISABILITY GROUP SAYS LAWS EXIST TO FORCE COURTHOUSE RENOVATION

A KERRY disability support group say opponents of plans to move Tralee Courthouse could easily use existing laws to force the Department of Justice to carry out necessary upgrades to the building.

Members of the Kerry Law Society are fighting long term plans by the Department of Justice to move Tralee Courthouse to a site on the outskirts of the town.

The Courts Service maintain the only cost effective way to improve facilities – including access for the disabled – is to build a new courthouse.

Kerry Law Society say the required improvements to the 19th century building at Ashe Street in Tralee could easily be facilitated if the courthouse was expanded into a largely unused site to its rear.

This week Martin Conway of the Kerry Disability Network told The Kerryman that laws are already in place which would force the Government to upgrade the current facility.

Mr Conway said that in 1984 a number of solicitors in Cavan and Waterford secured separate ‘mandamus’ orders which compelled the Commissioners of Public Works to upgrade courthouses in Waterford city and at Virginia County Cavan to make them fully accessible.

Mandamus orders - from the Latin ‘we command’ – are legal rulings handed down by superior courts that oblige all public authorities to meet their legal requirements.

As universal access rights for the disabled are enshrined under EU law a Mandamus order could be requested to compel the state – in particular the Department of Justice and The Courts Service – to complete the long sought and necessary improvement works at Tralee Courthouse.