Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I detect a certain reluctance on the part of Deputy Costello to see this change take place. If I thought for a minute that it made sense to continue developing the city centre location as a prison site, I would have found that much more convenient, but it is not acceptable. It is not possible to provide a proper modern prison on the Mountjoy site with all the necessary medical and other facilities which a proper prison complex should have.

The Deputy asked if it is intended to have the training unit, St. Patrick's Institution, the women's prison and the Mountjoy Garda station included in the property disposal. It is the initial intention to dispose of all of these. The Deputy asked what would happen to the historic buildings there. I have seen one figurative redevelopment scheme which was prepared with a view to ascertaining the value of the site, in which a number of the landmark aspects of the prison were preserved as architectural features of a re-development which included water spaces and so on, along with an attractive apartment complex. The Deputy should look forward to that as an enhancement of his constituency rather than anything else.

Regarding the possibility of preserving the entire prison on the basis that it is 150 years old, we cannot preserve all our prisons as museums. Kilmainham Gaol is a magnificent facility in terms of a preserved prison, but we do not need to have two competing museum prisons in Dublin. Individual features of Mountjoy Prison might have an architectural or historic interest. One of those has been mentioned, namely, the gallows and the building in which it is housed. Some might think this macabre but others may think it of huge significance. We will address these issues later. Many Irish patriots gave their lives for this country in that place and it would be sad if it were simply demolished and cleared away as builders' rubble.

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