Judge calls on courts service to address Westport courthouse issue

CAMPAIGN Fianna FΡil leader MicheΡl Martin and local councillor Brendan Mulroy pictured outside Westport Courthouse in 2015.

Anton McNulty

A DISTRICT Court judge has called on the Courts Service to decide whether it is closing the Westport Courthouse on a permanent basis or reopening it.
The courthouse in Westport has been closed since 2013 and all court hearings for the Westport district have since been heard in Castlebar Courthouse.
At last week’s sitting of Westport District Court, sitting in Castlebar, Judge Mary Devins called on the Courts Service to decide what it is going to do with the courthouse as the current position was affecting the court list.
In recent years, Judge Devins has set aside a separate court date for minor ‘motoring and miscellaneous’ offences, which is known as an ‘M and M day’, in order to free up the normal court list.
When the summonses for these offences are issued they are automatically send forward to an ‘M and M day’. However, all motoring offences in Westport are still sent forward to the normal Westport District Court sitting date.
A number of people charged with these offences came before last week’s sittings of Westport District Court, but they all had to be adjourned to an ‘M and M day’.
Commenting on the situation, Judge Devins said the motoring offences had to come before the normal Westport District Court sitting because ‘Westport is not officially closed’. She said the problem needed to be resolved and called on the Court Service, as owners of the building, to decide whether it wants to ‘reopen Westport or close it’ officially.
The closure of the iconic courthouse building, located on the corner of Distillery Road and Castlebar Street, was brought about due to ‘serious health and safety risks posing an immediate danger to judges, staff, the public and others using the building’.
The Courts Service stated in 2013 that it had no option but to temporarily close the building on health and safety grounds but added that the closure was ‘hopefully a short term measure and not an indication of any future intention as regards the future use of Westport as a court venue’.
The closure was supposed to last only five months but since its closure no works has been carried out. There are currently only four courthouses in operation in Mayo and they are located in Castlebar, Ballina, Belmullet and Achill.