Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 130: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if his attention has been drawn to the fact that his Department sanctioned the funds to purchase the Thornton prison site in which he said that the sanction was conveyed on the condition that all procurement guidelines have been strictly followed; if his further attention has been drawn to the fact that the Comptroller and Auditor General's annual report concludes that procurement guidelines were not followed when purchasing this site; if disciplinary procedures have been initiated within his Department to investigate this matter; if procedures have been put in place to ensure that the spending of public funds cannot be sanctioned in this way in future; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33085/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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The Annual Report for 2005 of the Comptroller and Auditor General includes a chapter on the acquisition of a Site for Prison Development. The Department of Finance granted sanction for the acquisition of the site on the condition that procurement guidelines were followed. Contrary to the implications of the Deputy's question all the relevant procurement guidelines were followed by my Department in acquiring the Thornton site. The Comptroller and Auditor General did raise a question with respect to the engagement of advisors by the Office of Public Works but that does not affect the sanction for the acquisition of Thornton.

I am satisfied that the site selected is an excellent site and will allow Mountjoy to be replaced by a modern high standard prison with conditions and facilities beyond anything that could be contemplated in Mountjoy.

At its recent hearings on the Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General for 2005 there was an overwhelming consensus among the members of the Public Accounts Committee that it would have been wrong to buy a prison site by a secret deal or process. Accordingly, there was no agreement by the members that any premium on the sale value of the site arising from the open process of purchase adopted by the Committee should have been avoided by purchasing the site on a secret or confidential basis.