Dominic Hannigan (Labour)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. We debated this issue about two weeks ago with one of his colleagues. I raised four key issues that day, namely, the proposal to relocate the Central Mental Hospital there, the proposal to relocate the women's prison there, the size of the prison and detailed design issues regarding the site. I will not go over old ground but I received a response from the Minister which does not fill me with any confidence about the assessment that was undertaken on the decision to locate the women's prison and the Central Mental Hospital there.

The Minister of State does not accept that this will be a super-prison, as it is only designed for 1,200 and can almost double its capacity to 2,200. The likelihood is that before we know it, 2,200 people will be put there. I am very concerned that this is effectively a super-prison. In his report into the Strangeways riot in Manchester, Lord Woolf stated that a maximum prison size should be 400. The chief inspector of prisons in the UK, Ms Anne Owens, refers to anything with a capacity of more than 2,000 as a super-prison. Therefore, we need to call a spade a spade. This is a super-prison. The debate should be about whether we need a super-prison and whether it is the right way to rehabilitate people by putting them in such large prisons. Perhaps it is the way forward; I do not know. However, we are not doing anyone any good by ducking the debate. I would prefer to see an explanation on why we need to see a prison built with a capacity for more than 2,000 people.

I also want to talk about some detailed issues, many of which have been covered before. I live close to the area, and some people from the area are in the Visitors Gallery. It is impossible to find one's way around the local roads. There are no footpaths and there is very little signage. We need to spend money on the local road network to ensure people can find their way to it, but local residents should not be inconvenienced. The perimeter must be in place before the prison site is constructed. The residents are also asking for a planning condition that work on the construction site would take place only between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. We need to ensure trucks do not wait outside before 7 a.m., as that happens all over the north east at the moment, disturbing the sleep of local residents. Construction routes should avoid local schools such as those in Bellewstown and Lismullen, which are right next to the proposed site. These schools suffer from heavy construction traffic, so we must take account of this.

I support Senator O'Toole's call for a change in name. Calling the prison Thornton Hall does not do anyone any good. A working title could be the new Mountjoy, or perhaps the Charles J. Haughey correctional institute. I do not mind.