Dominic Hannigan (Labour)

I join other Senators in expressing my disquiet about the announced binning of the proposal for a prison site at Thornton Hall. This raises questions about the whole evaluation system for our public private partnerships. It is not the first public private partnership to fall by the wayside. A bigger question concerns our prison policy. Irrespective of whether one liked the Thornton Hall site - I believed it was not the right site - it was central to the Government's prison policy and plans. Is there now a plan B? As we speak, prisoners in some prisons must double up in cells. In Mountjoy, there are prisoners sleeping in corridors. It is not clear that we have a way around this. What is the Minister's intention regarding prison policy now that the Thornton Hall proposal has been abandoned?