Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

Yes, and the Deputy should know that it is suitable land. Road access to the land is not inadequate as has been suggested. I wonder has the Deputy driven up the long straight road, because he would be impressed by the road access to the land. It is not as inadequate as the Deputy is implying.

On the construction of the prison campus, this will be done on a public private partnership basis. The Department of Finance's public private partnership experts and the treasury management agency's experts concurred that the first thing to do for a PPP for a prison is to acquire the site, which has been done. I cannot now put a cost estimate on the entire deal. In the nature of PPP tendering, it would be foolish of me to commit to that.

See this speech in context