Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

The issue of the acquisition of a prison site at Thornton Hall was included in the 2005 report of the Comptroller and Auditor General at the request of the Committee of Public Accounts and will be examined by it in October. The relevant officials from my Department will be present to account in detail to the Committee of Public Accounts on all the issues raised by the Comptroller and Auditor General.

The Committee of Public Accounts is the proper forum to address these matters and I am reluctant to show any lack of respect to that committee by trying to anticipate or pre-empt its examination. However, I have to note that the Comptroller and Auditor General does not state that too much was paid for Thornton Hall. Rather, to quote his main conclusion, he states that "a well-managed, third party approach might have allowed the Prison Service to procure suitable land at a much lower price than was paid for the land at Thornton".

Let us be clear that in this context a "third party approach" means that a site would be acquired in secret. No one would be told that the State was involved or that land was being sought for the most significant penal development in the history of the State. There would have been no public advertisement, no information given in Dáil answers and a very restricted assessment process.

The Accounting Officer of my Department has already gone on record stating that in the light of the nature of this particular project and to ensure proper accountability, a deliberate and principled decision was taken not to use a third party, furtive, acquire by stealth approach. The strategic, moral and practical reasons for that decision are outlined in the report and have not been contradicted by the Comptroller and Auditor General.

While there is a passing reference to compulsory purchase order mechanisms in the report, the Comptroller and Auditor General is aware that there is no provision for the acquisition of a prison site like Thornton Hall by compulsory purchase order. I do not have the power to look at a map, say that site would suit and go to the present occupant of it and ask him or her to hand over his or her property to me.

The report does state that there are some "apparent" inconsistencies in the evaluations of the site. That issue and issues relating to surveys, costing and site size will be fully addressed by the relevant officials at the Committee of Public Accounts. However, I can say at this point that my Department's Accounting Officer is satisfied that it would not have been possible to obtain a site as suitable as Thornton Hall for any less than was paid. The information available to me is that no site of comparable quality and suitability closer to Dublin has changed hands in recent times for less per acre than was paid for the Thornton Hall site.

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