Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)

However, it will be gone once the gleam becomes a reality, if it ever does.

The Minister probably sees a gleam in my eye when I mention the €30 million which has gone down the drain on a place worth between €5 million and €6 million, and that is not the only example of the Minister's profligate approach. I warned at the time that access to Thornton Hall was dreadful and that it would not qualify as suitable by any criteria. I gather the Minister has taken his cheque book out again. I am advised, and he might clarify the matter, that further enormous amounts of money have been waved about for adjacent vegetable gardens so that access can be provided to the prison. I would like to know the full picture on that and on the adjoining ground, owned by a well known major company, and whether the figures mentioned to me, which run into millions of euro, are correct. What further taxpayers' money has the Minister quietly spent on securing access to a place that was inaccessible in the context of such a major project?

I am very glad the Minister saw the error of his ways on Cork prison before it went too far. The project on Spike Island was ill-conceived. I can, however, offer comfort to the Minister in regard to Kilworth Camp. Having served with the FCA at the barracks, I believe it has a lot to offer as a prison location. I know the area very well and, subject to more information being made available, I would support the idea of a prison at that location. I have one reservation, however, namely, its distance from Cork city, from where the majority of the prison population will come.

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