Councillors demand meeting over Youghal Courthouse closure

By Peter McCarthy, Corkman

East Cork Councillors have rejected a letter from the Department of Justice on the closure of Youghal Courthouse and have called for the Justice Minister or a representative from the department to come and talk to them.

The letter to Cork County Council from the private secretary of Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan said that on the second Friday of each month from June 1, cases from Youghal are being heard in Dungarvan in a sitting intended for child and family law cases.

The letter went on to state that the judge assigned to the district has issued a direction transferring the District Court business currently listed at Youghal to Dungarvan Courthouse with effect from November 1 this year.

The Courts Service is engaging and consulting with all relevant stakeholders, including An Garda Síochána, “in relation to the impacts and any possible unintended consequences of these changes,” the letter added.

The Councillors blasted the lack of engagement with them in the stakeholder consultation and outlined the detrimental effect that the decision will have on the East Cork town and the surrounding locality.

“The direct impact over the division of East Cork, where we could be losing staffing levels from Cobh, Midleton, Carrigtwohill, Killeagh and all the sub-villages to go to Youghal on days when An Garda Síochána will have to go to Dungarvan is not acceptable,” said Cllr Ann Marie Ahern.

“The Garda presence will be out of the town for numbers of hours if they have to travel to Dungarvan, which is in another county, which to me shouldn't be allowed at all. As well as that, you’ve family courts and you’ve people on the margins that won't be able to afford to attend courts financially,” said Cllr Mary Linehan Foley.

Cllr Linehan Foley rejected the suggestion that the current court building, the Mall House, is draughty, which has been reported as one of the reasons behind moving the court sittings to Dungarvan.

“We have heaters, they can be used, and at the end of the day, we [East Cork Municipal District] used the courthouse during COVID ourselves and we were never cold, far from it, inside there.” She pointed out that the current building has been used as a courthouse for over twenty years.

Cllr Michael Hegarty said the Youghal Courthouse district “represents and covers a vast area. There are people on the margins who would need to use those facilities and expecting or requesting them to go to Dungarvan, it's not on.

“And as well as that, the Gardai are very disappointed and annoyed as well to be taken out of their normal jurisdiction. If it happens, you'll see an awful lot of cases being deferred, adjourned, and it will lead just to a major backlog in dealing with the court services.”

Cork County Council is now going to send a letter to the Department of Justice calling for a meeting with the minister or a department official.

“I think it's actually very frustrating to get a response like this without any engagement with the public reps of the area. I'm very nervous that this is a fait accompli, that it's done and dusted at this stage. And that's why the letter we got back from the department is kind of brushing us aside. But we're not going to be brushed aside on this," said Councillor Linehan Foley.