An Post facility in Kerry town on the market amid calls to use site for courthouse
The KerrymanAn Post’s sorting facility on Edward Street in Tralee will go on the market after a relocation to Monavalley earlier this week, the postal service has confirmed.
And news of the sale has renewed calls locally for the site to be used to facilitate an expansion of the adjacent Tralee Courthouse.
An expansion of Tralee Courthouse into the Edward Street site – which is adjacent to the courthouse on Ashe Street – is now being proposed as an alternative to building a new courthouse complex on the Island of Geese, on the other side of the town centre from the 192-year-old neoclassical courthouse.
The sorting facility moved on August 25, a month later than originally planned.
“Our plan would be to then place the property on the market,” said a spokesperson for An Post.
“Our Edward Street post office will remain and will be part of any sale or future development plans for the site.”
Local stakeholders are divided on the proposed construction of a new courthouse. Those in favour argue the existing courthouse is cramped and new facilities are urgently required to meet the basic needs of the public.
Other politicians and business owners say the An Post site provides ample room for courthouse expansion and refurbishment.
They argue it would cost considerably less than the construction of a new building, projected at €22 million, and keep business in that part of the town centre, in line with council priorities to revitalise town centres.
Courthouse upgrades would cost an estimated €2.5 million, according to records obtained by Radio Kerry 2023.
The updated National Development Plan, announced in late July 2025, allocates €2.180 billion to the justice sector for major capital projects from 2026 to 2030.
Funding for a new Tralee courthouse was requested from this allocation, said a spokesperson from the Court Service.
Plans for the heritage building are unclear.
Ashe Street workers expressed concern about any move that would see the courthouse become vacant.
The courthouse already attracts all walks of life, said Eddie Yu, the manager of China Town, a restaurant opposite the courthouse.
“For my business, it makes no big difference but I think it will bring more chaos if it closes,” he said. “Sometimes people sleep outside the courthouse. It’s a different story every night.”
The move would not likely affect business unless the courthouse were left vacant, said staff at Benny’s Barbers.
“It’d become a hangout spot and it’s already kind of a hangout spot,” said Nicole Murphy, one of the barbers. “A lot of fools are around the courthouse.”
In 2022, Kerry County councillors voted overwhelmingly to sell a €160,000 site on the Island of Geese to the Courts Service of Ireland for a new courthouse complex. The Kerry Law Society appealed to councillors to vote for the sale.
The date of the An Post relocation was unknown at the time.
By March 2024, Councillor Jim Finucane told The Kerryman: “That boat has sailed 100 per cent and the new courthouse will be at the Island of Geese.”
A month later, the Minister for Justice at the time, Helen McEntee, said expanding court services to Edward Street was not possible because it was not for sale.