Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I move amendment No. 1:

"To delete all words after "Dail Éireann" and substitute the following:

"—welcomes the Government's commitment and performance to date in improving prison facilities and conditions and its decision to replace the Mountjoy complex with a new facility on a greenfield site;

—notes that the development of a greenfield site will provide both better long-term value for money and superior facilities than could ever be provided by the redevelopment of the already overcrowded Mountjoy site;

—affirms the view that the Irish prison system should provide a secure and humane environment for all those detained there,

—endorses the programme of prison reform and development established by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to ensure that the State has effective working arrangements and sufficient capacity of high standard prison accommodation to provide for its needs in the immediate future in a cost effective manner;

—notes that the Minister's programme will lead to higher standards and better facilities for prisoners including universal availability of in cell sanitation which will end the practice of slopping out; and

—commends the work done to date by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and his Department in progressing these long overdue reforms and identifying and acquiring an excellent site at Thornton, County Dublin, for the development of new prison facilities to replace the Mountjoy prison complex."

I welcome very much this opportunity to address the House on the selection and acquisition of a site at Thornton in north County Dublin for a new prison facility to replace the Mountjoy Prison complex in the north inner city.

Shortly after my appointment as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, I toured the Mountjoy campus in its entirety in the company of the governors of the different institutions on the campus. While I had in the past seen some of the campus, it was an eye opening experience to be shown all of it. What I found there was a largely Victorian complex in a poor state of repair, overcrowded, under-equipped, at best depressing and at worst inhumane. While some parts were more modem, all were overcrowded. Much of the fabric of the main prison remained unchanged from the mid-19th century original with the exception that an early in cell sanitation system had been removed. While efforts had been made to improve the kitchens, prisoners were frequently required to eat in their cells. There was no space for athletic pursuits and the general atmosphere was threatening in tone and Dickensian. The Irish Prison Service had sought to alleviate some of the problems by installing television in every cell.

As in other institutions, padded cells were in use. I saw a male offender in his 40s who was clearly psychiatrically ill lying clad only in underpants with a chamber pot in a darkened padded cell into which no Member of this House would willingly enter. When I think of him lying in the foetal position, it haunts me to this day. Conditions in Mountjoy Prison have been severely criticised by the Council of Europe committee on the prevention of torture and other inhuman or degrading treatment and they have also been roundly condemned by the Inspector of Prisons. The cost of keeping an individual prisoner in Mountjoy, due to its outdated technology and design in 2003 was €98,400, 40% more expensive than Cloverhill, at €68,700.

I formed the view that the Mountjoy complex was wholly incapable of serving as a centre for rehabilitation and detention of prisoners. I also became convinced that even the elementary step of extending in cell sanitation to the existing cells would be prohibitively expensive and would constitute good money thrown after bad. The main purpose of replacing Mountjoy is to improve our stock of prison accommodation. Redeveloping the existing 20 acre site at Mountjoy is neither financially viable at an estimated cost of in excess of €400 million nor is it practical from an operational or developmental perspective. The development of a green field site at the 150 acre site at Thornton means that we will have the room to develop new facilities, introduce single person cells with in cell sanitation and end the unpleasant practice of slopping out. The size of the site gives us considerable flexibility in developing new facilities as well as allowing us plan for the future.

The acquisition of the site also means that the Mountjoy site will be freed up for development which will bring new life into that area of the north inner city, which will benefit the local community. The proceeds from the disposal of the 20 acre site at Mountjoy, which I expect to be of the order of between at least €80 million to €100 million, will offset to a considerable degree the cost of the new development at Thornton. In February 2004 the Government, therefore, approved the announcement of the intention to close Mountjoy and to replace it with a greenfield site. On foot of that decision, advertisements were placed in the newspapers seeking suitable sites.

A process was established which was designed to be fair and objective. A committee chaired by a senior official in my Department and including one of the Commissioners of Public Works and other officials of the Irish Prison Service was put in place to evaluate and select a replacement site for Mountjoy. An advertisement was placed in the national press inviting expressions of interest and as a result more than 30 sites were put forward and assessed. Even including the totally unsuitable sites, the average price sought was of the order of €200,000 per acre but some owners sought as much as €500,000 per acre. The selection process narrowed down to a small number of sites and ultimately to two. Of these, one was a parcel of land between the N2 and the proposed M2 motorway at Coolquay, which comprised approximately 100 acres. The bargaining process with the owner of that site eventually reduced the asking price from €33 million to more than €31 million. That was the preferred site at that point — one which I favoured — and it would have been acquired, all things being equal, at the price of €320,000 per acre. That land, which is approximately 2,500 yards from the land at Thornton was zoned agricultural, as were the lands at Thornton. Objectively, however, the lands at Coolquay had a higher intrinsic value than those at Thornton. The Coolquay lands had superior road frontage and were, in part, liable to flooding and would have required the construction of consideration attenuation facilities if they had been developed as a prison campus. The owner of the Coolquay lands was unwilling to dispose of them at that price to the Department unless he could be sure that the capital gains tax rate of 20% would apply to their disposal, rather than the higher rate of 40%. In October and early November 2004, the field narrowed to the Coolquay lands and in November 2004 the vendor's tax problems were notified to the committee.

Towards the end of November the vendor indicated that he could not proceed at the moment with the sale and his solicitor wrote to the property adviser to the committee, Ronan Webster, on 21 December 2004 "to advise that he is not proceeding further with the sale of the lands and has asked that all arrangements with the Department of Justice now terminate." Those were his exact words. I stress this point because last night this letter was shown on television but it was not quoted accurately. I will return to that issue later.

See this speech in context