Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This was the argument put forward at the time, that part of the sale price would go into the process. Then the project went totally out of kilter and became three times the original size, going from 723 places to 2,200 places. I cannot understand who was in charge. The necessity to provide decent sanitation for prisoners in came up in various reports and Mr. Justice Kinlan was strong on it at the time. All of a sudden in 2010, hey presto and lo and behold, we could do this for just a fraction of the cost. As it happens, the analysis of the prison population was also flawed because we see it is decreasing. Perhaps Mr. Donnellan has figures for 2015, but the figures for 2014 show there were more than 200 fewer prisoners than there were in 2013. The curve of imprisonment has shifted.

We have not received an explanation for the purchase of land in a remote area, which required all types of ancillary works to make it accessible, at the expense of an open prison, or for why its cost and size should change so drastically over a period of time, going from €150 million to €525 million and from 723 prisoners to 2,200 prisoners or for closing Shanganagh Castle. Nothing has happened, and this has been going on since the original board was established in 2001. This was called the Mountjoy Prison development group, and Mr. Waters might tell me who its members were. We have been living with this white elephant since 2000 and we still do not know what will happen. The last time we discussed it the review was also considering Harcourt Street.