Results 14,021-14,040 of 18,734 for speaker:Michael McDowell

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: Then, when he was not happy with that, he attempted to rezone Mountjoy so that it would have no replacement value as a greenfield site.

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: I am aware that a small number of residents in the area, which is thinly populated, given its proximity to the city, are conducting a well-funded campaign against the siting of a prison facility in their area. They have placed advertisements on the front of newspapers, and I commend them on exercising their democratic right. They are also entitled to lobby Deputies.

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: I can understand that they have concerns about such a development in their back yard. I daresay that there is no place in the Dublin area — I would like Deputies to tell me where there is one — and few places on the whole island where the siting of a prison would be welcomed universally by local residents. However, as public representatives we must look beyond narrow, local sectional...

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: It is very disappointing, therefore, to see both the Labour Party and Fine Gael strongly backing the interests of a group of residents in one area, however well-intentioned, and showing so little regard for the welfare of prisoners or the wider public interest in ensuring we have an effective and humane prison infrastructure. The sole purpose of the motion is to try to generate negative...

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: This proposed resolution will not affect that one way or the other. Similarly, the suggestion in their joint press release that the resolution will result in the Comptroller and Auditor General conducting an inquiry into the transaction before it is completed is bizarre.

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: It is complete nonsense and has no basis in either law or reality. If they even half-believed their own propaganda, one would think that they might have tried bringing forward this motion back in January or February when the purchase was announced, rather than waiting to do it a matter of days before the closing date, when there is not a remote possibility of any inquiry being completed...

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: However, I will not be party to a motion that implies the Comptroller and Auditor General would not of his own accord look into this transaction and that pretends this resolution will do something it cannot possibly do.

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: How can the Members opposite talk about value for the taxpayer when they have opposed all cost effective proposals——

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: ——and schemed to block the sale of Mountjoy Prison and tried to artificially lower its resale value? That is what members of the Labour Party on Dublin county Council did, at Deputy Costello's behest. How can I or the general public take seriously a party that proclaims it is concerned about value for the taxpayer when at the same time it argued for the redevelopment of the already...

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: I did not. The figure was 2,000.

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: How can any rational person entertain such an approach? If Opposition Members want to talk about value for the taxpayer, let us look at the finances relating to Thornton. Its development costs will be a fraction of the cost of redeveloping Mountjoy Prison. The new prison development at Thornton Hall will be more cost effective to operate, have better facilities with room for expansion and...

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: When looking at the cost of developing Thornton Hall, one must take into account that Mountjoy Prison is old and inefficient and that the Prison Service estimates that by replacing it at Thornton, we will achieve operational savings of €30 million to €40 million per year. In addition, its cost is being funded in part by the sale of Shanganagh, which will eventually yield between €15...

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: That may be true and I will be glad if it proves to be so. When Deputy Costello has the courage to examine that place, justify its retention and say it is the correct environment in which to keep psychiatrically ill people, I will be glad to hear his arguments.

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: There were not even television sets in the rooms when I visited yet those detained in Dundrum are mainly innocent of any criminal misdemeanour. If we are really interested in value for money we should have the Comptroller and Audit General examine the significant amounts of money wasted when Labour and Fine Gael were last in Government. The amount wasted on prison overtime alone because of...

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: I remember writing an article in 1995 for the Sunday Independent asking the last Fine Gael Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to deal with the overtime issue. Nothing was done. Diddly squat. Fine Gael and Labour were a disaster for the criminal justice system. Like a swarm of locusts, they left devastation in their wake.

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: At a time when there was gross overcrowding and appalling conditions in our prisons, to the extent that the revolving door policy was operating at warp speed with prisoners being released shortly after they arrived, when one in five prisoners was out on temporary release, the rainbow Government, that slump coalition, cancelled plans to develop more prison capacity and cut back on expenditure...

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: That coalition chose populist and profligate policies which neglected law and order. Can it really be the same Labour and Fine Gael that presided over the revolving door syndrome who are now saying, as one of their number has said today, that we do not need a replacement for Mountjoy Prison?

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: Have those parties forgotten how they brought the criminal justice system to its knees? Let me remind them that when the then Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform tried to take action to alleviate the overcrowding that spawned the revolving door, her own Cabinet colleagues pulled the rug from under her feet. Opposition Members have short memories.

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: As to the cost of the land, every person in Dublin knows one cannot purchase land suitable for future development in the Dublin area at farm land prices. I will conclude by making one further point.

Prison Building Programme: Motion. (28 Sep 2005)

Michael McDowell: I am confident that in five or seven years, when the full campus at Thornton Hall is completed, the public will look back on these days and be grateful for the foresight and leadership the Government has shown in making a major investment on its behalf in the Prison Service.