The Kerry Law Society says a new courthouse would make the Island of Geese site in Tralee an island of hope.
All 33 county councillors in Kerry will vote on Monday whether to sell a section of the site to the Courts Service for €160,000 to build a new courthouse.
The Kerry Law Society says the new courthouse would offer significant employment at the site.
Canice Walsh of the Kerry Law Society’s Courts Sub-Committee is appealing to elected members to vote in favour of the sale of a section of the site to the Courts Service.
He says the consequences of a vote against the sale will be an unmitigated disaster for Kerry as a whole.
Mr Walsh says the society notes the views expressed by former employees at the Denny bacon factory, which was located at the site, that it would be abhorrent to allow a place where generations of families worked become a place of crime and punishment.
He adds that punishing crime is one small part of the administration of justice, and courts are also about righting wrongs, protecting the weak and vulnerable, and vindicating rights.
He says just as the factory once employed generations of workers at the site, a new courthouse too could provide significant employment for generations to come.
Mr Walsh says this employment extends to people employed by the Courts Service, businesses in the area, suppliers, lawyers and people employed by lawyers.
The Kerry Law Society also says that if the vote is postponed, the opportunity of development funding will be gone, and facilities will go to other counties.
Elected representatives will vote on the sale of a section of the site this coming Monday at a full meeting of Kerry County Council at the council buildings in Rathass.
