Cost of new prison site rises by €8.5m
The €30m site purchased for the new Mountjoy prison will cost the taxpayer another €8.5m to equip with water, gas and sewage services, it emerged today.
The Department of Justice is planning to build a new prison complex on a 150-acre greenfield site in Thorntown in North Dublin by 2008 when the antiquated Mountjoy prison will close.
Fine Gael Justice spokesman Jim O’Keeffe TD, who obtained the information on the extra costs in a Dáil question, said the project was a criminal waste of money.
“This new prison project has all the hallmarks of this Government’s triple threat to the taxpayer. Incompetent handling of major projects from the outset, spiralling costs which no-one controls and a complete absence of accountability,” he said.
Mr O’Keefe said the €8.5m cost of installing mains water, gas, electricity and a sewerage system did not even include the cost of upgrading the road access.
He has previously complained that the State has paid a price of €200,000 per acre for the Thorntown site when the market price for other neighbouring farms was around €40,000 per acre.
The site will include a male prison, a female prison, a building for young offenders, who are currently housed in St Patrick’s Institution in Mountjoy, and potentially a new facility to replace the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum, Dublin.
The Government is expected to raise up to €170m from the sale of Mountjoy and the Central Mental Hospital.
But Mr O’Keefe said it was disturbing that Mr McDowell was refusing to appear before the Dáil Justice Committee to address their concerns on the grounds that a judicial review had been taken by a local Thorntown resident.
“It is hard to see how explaining his squander-mania in relation to taxpayers’ money would prejudice the proceedings in the High Court.”
The Department of Justice has said the land was chosen as the most suitable of 30 different possible sites for the new prison complex and the Thorntown land was the cheapest of five sites in the area.
