Tony Gregory (Dublin Central, Independent)

I support this motion which simply requests that the Comptroller and Auditor General report on the transaction to acquire the site at Thornton Hall. However, the Government's amendment makes no mention of this basic request. The question must be asked as to why the Government refuses to agree to this simple and transparent request. We can only assume it is because it has something to hide.

While I accept it is unlikely that any property owner would sell a site for anything like the agricultural rate when it was already in the public domain that it was to be developed as a State prison and was being acquired for that purpose, this does not in any way excuse the grossly exorbitant price that was paid for it. Why not clear the air and allow the Comptroller and Auditor General to examine the deal? That critical issue simply has not been answered by the Government. Its amendment seems designed to divert attention away from this central issue of the apparent squandering of public money by suggesting all of this was motivated by a belated interest in the welfare of prisoners.

Mountjoy Prison is in my constituency and I have visited it on many occasions and been incarcerated there twice. I fully accept the time is long overdue to provide a new prison with in-cell sanitation and modern facilities. It is clearly time to close Mountjoy Prison but it should be transferred to a location accessible to the families of prisoners, many of whom regrettably still come from inner city Dublin. The real scandal of our prisons is that the vast bulk of prisoners still come from socially disadvantaged communities. They are a constant reminder of the unequal and divided society that the mentality of Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats has fostered.

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