Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 53: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the reason adequate time was not given to assessing all aspects of the land chosen for the new Mountjoy Prison at Thornton Hall, including the potential heritage impact and the infrastructural deficiencies; and the further reason there was such unseemly haste in completing contracts of a vastly inflated price on the farm in question. [16192/05]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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The procedures followed for the selection and purchase of the site at Thornton are the subject of proceedings before the High Court and the Deputy will appreciate that care must be taken to avoid prejudicing those proceedings. Nevertheless, the committee, which recommended purchase of the site at Thornton, gave full consideration to all potential sites brought to its attention, including the site at Thornton.

The availability of the site at Thornton was made known to the Irish Prison Service in December 2004. It was the subject of a physical inspection by staff of the Irish Prison Service, aerial photographs of the site were taken, an engineering, planning and technical survey was carried out and a check was made for listed sites and monuments.

Subsequent to this and informed by the preliminary work just referred to, the selection committee, comprising representatives from the Department, the Irish Prison Service and a commissioner from the Office of Public Works, assessed the site on 18 January 2005 using the marking matrix applied to other sites. On the basis of these objective criteria, the committee then recommended purchase of the site at Thornton. A contract to purchase the site was entered into on 26 January 2005.

The infrastructural needs of the site were addressed in the engineering, planning and technical survey and were considered by the selection committee. No presence of any architectural or archaeological feature with implications for the construction of a prison facility on the site has been identified.

As regards price, I would point out that an open, transparent and objective public procurement procedure was utilised. Advertisements were placed in the major newspapers inviting any person with suitable land in the greater Dublin area to contact the Irish Prison Service. More than 30 sites were put forward and assessed. The average asking price was €200,000 per acre but some owners sought as much as €500,000 per acre.

The site at Thornton, which is costing €29.9 million for 150 acres, was the least expensive suitable site considered by the selection committee.

The redevelopment of a prison complex on the Mountjoy site would cost in excess of €400 million. The purchase of the Thornton site provides a 150 acre site for the location of a modern campus to provide humane rehabilitative prison conditions at a considerably lower cost as well as allowing the full value of the 20 acre Mountjoy site to be realised.