Major projects to continue despite prison row
Major public infrastructure projects will not be affected by the move to rethink plans for a €400m superprison in north Dublin due to increased costs.
The Irish Prison Service yesterday broke off long-running talks with a consortium due to build the Thornton Hall complex, which was expected to replace Mountjoy Prison, because it was no longer affordable.
Opposition parties claimed in the Dáil that other projects may now be similarly in jeopardy such as the Dart inter-connector and the building programme for schools and hospitals.
However Taoiseach Brian Cowen insisted the Government would build a prison at the Thornton Hall site.
“It is our intention to proceed with a prison at the site,” he said.
“We are fully committed to replacing Mountjoy with a new prison complex at Thornton Hall.
“The Minister for Justice will bring comprehensive new proposals to Government in a matter of weeks.
“The new prison is needed because Mountjoy is nearly 160 years old and we need to replace that.
“There will be 400 places to come into commission in the meantime at Wheatfield, Castlerea and Portlaoise which should be able to come on stream this year.”
Mr Cowen also insisted that public infrastructure projects across the country will continue to be built by the Public Private Partnership (PPP) system.
“PPP has worked well in many instances,” he told TDs.
A 150-acre greenfield site near Swords was earmarked for Thornton Hall was bought in controversial circumstances for €30m in 2005.
Since then, €11m has been spent on development costs such as road access, land surveys and landscaping.
The planned jail would have a maximum capacity of 2,200 prisoners.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said a previous PPP proposal to for the urban regeneration of inner city communities in Dublin was also shelved after it became unviable.
Referring to funding allocated to abandoned projects such as P-pars and e-voting, Mr Kenny added: “This is now dead money, wasted by you as Minister for Finance. It is taxpayers’ money, it’s gone but you don’t have the courage to admit that.”
“It is perfectly obvious that major finance for major public projects is now in serious difficulties.”
He called for clarification on the future of Dublin’s Dart interconnector as well as the national building programme for schools and hospitals.
“If the PPP system has failed because of the cost of borrowing.
“Are we to have more examples of a litany of waste and more waste which is the hallmark of Fianna Fáil in Government over the past 12 years?”
He added: “The range in the spectrum of incompetence and waste of money is quite simply incredible.”
“You wouldn’t know what value for money was if it jumped up and bit the Government in the face.”
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore asked Mr Cowen if the facility would be built on the same scale as originally planned.
He also called for the new start and completion dates for the project but Mr Cowen did not reply.
