Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for the opportunity to address this issue as Thornton Hall is located in my Dublin West constituency. I wish to express my opposition to this project in its entirety, first on the basis of its cost. The site cost is €40 million, which is an extraordinary cost for a piece of agricultural land that probably is only worth approximately €6 million, and that is before one includes the cost of providing the road network linking it to the N2 and the considerable cost of servicing the site, which will add to the total cost.

I oppose this project on the basis of its location, which is rural and isolated and is entirely inappropriate for a prison of this scale. I am concerned about the dubious process by which the site was acquired, the lack of democratic input into the decision effectively to railroad Fingal County Council into accepting this and preventing proper planning process from occurring and the somewhat incomplete environmental impact assessment that was performed.

I join my party colleagues in expressing concern about the possibility that the site may be used in future to house women prisoners, given that an excellent women's prison already exists. It would be inappropriate and wrong to move it for property benefits rather than anything else. I am also concerned the Department will seek planning permission to locate the Central Mental Hospital in Thornton Hall. This would be a retrograde step and would be the opposite of every other country's policy, which is to separate prisons from forensic mental hospitals. Let us be honest. The only reason this is being done is because of the property interests of the various Departments concerned, which want to cash in on some valuable land.

This proposal should not go ahead on the grounds of human rights. I will be using my influence with members of Fingal County Council to ensure permission is not granted for the relocation of the Central Mental Hospital to this site, to ensure that a specific objective is not added in and that there is no variation. However, I have no doubt the Government will try to introduce legislation to get around the council and circumvent democracy once again, in order to impose its money making property plan by selling land in Dundrum and putting the Central Mental Hospital in Thornton Hall.

The current Minister for Finance is a local TD in Dublin West. I attended several meetings in the run-up to the general election, in which Deputy Brian Lenihan, then the Minister of State with responsibility for children, promised there would be a full review of the decision to locate the prison if the Government was re-elected. There can be no doubt that the Minister has betrayed and deceived the electorate of Dublin West in this area, as no such review has been carried out.

We should not forget the Green Party. This party was the loudest in its opposition to Thornton Hall. Speaking in this House, Deputy Cuffe stated:

Ministers and political leaders have a certain attraction to grands projets. From Charles Haughey to Mitterand in France, the large projects seem to concentrate minds. Ceaucescu, the late President of Romania, spent his latter years erecting a large palace for himself in the centre of Bucharest. Closer to home, the Tánaiste, Deputy McDowell, accused the Taoiseach of pursuing of Ceaucescu like project in the vicinity of the M50. However, I suspect that the Tánaiste's political legacy may well be a rather large white elephant on a site ten miles from Dublin at Thornton Hall in Fingal. The people of Romania eventually revolted and threw out Ceaucescu. I suspect within the next few months, the Irish people may well be revolted enough to remove the Tánaiste, Deputy McDowell, from office.

They were revolted enough and Deputy McDowell was removed from office, but the Green Party replaced him and it is pursuing exactly the same policy of the man they compared to Ceaucescu. Haughey and Mitterand. Never has a party sold itself as cheaply as the Green Party. Never has a party whored itself so cheaply for so little.

In a press statement, Deputy Trevor Sargent commented:

Having visited Mountjoy and seen the women's prison, I feel it is an absolute vandalism to suggest the demolition of a prison of that standard, which has many of the facilities about which the Minister spoke. Much can be done to extend Portlaoise Prison and renovate Mountjoy, as well as looking more carefully at new sites, instead of playing poker with taxpayers' money, as the Minister has done.

This was the view last year of the party that is now in Government this year. I want to give the House one more quote from Deputy Cuffe:

How dare the Tánaiste completely circumvent the planning process in order to build these places of detention? Whether it is dealing with the protected structures at the Mountjoy site or the archaeology at Thornton Hall, I am deeply alarmed that the Tánaiste is simply avoiding the normal planning process in order to deliver projects. That is not good enough and is a negation of the public right to have an input.

The Green Party and its members can argue legitimately that they could not stop the development at Tara. They can perhaps argue they could not stop the incinerator at Poolbeg. They can argue they cannot do anything about Shannon and that it is too late to do something about Rossport. However, they cannot argue that they cannot stop the development at Thornton Hall. They can stop it and can prove they are the party they claim to be by voting against this resolution. However, they will not do that. While I accept their explanations to some extent on incineration, on Rossport, on Shannon and on Tara, this issue is a pure litmus test. If the Green Party is still a party of ethics and high standards, its Members in this House must vote against this proposal tonight, or they will be exposed as cynical and desperate for power and prepared to succumb to Fianna Fáil, regardless of the cost.

It is also important to mention Deputy Finian McGrath, the former Independent representative for Dublin North-Central. He also spoke previously on this issue and told us he was totally opposed to Thornton Hall, and that it was a waste of public money.

See this speech in context