Protected status of Tuam courthouse a 'cop out'

CLAIMS that the protected status of Tuam’s Courthouse building is preventing it from being redeveloped have been rejected as a 'cop out’ by members of the town’s municipal district council.
The Department of Justice has claimed that the inclusion of the building on Galway County Council’s record of protected structures 'greatly impacts its plans and restricts options for providing new court facilities on the site’.
In a letter sent to the council, the private secretary to Minister Frances Fitzgerald suggested that the council use its own resources to redevelop the building, which it still owns.