Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 11: To ask the Minister for Justice and Law Reform the progress on the Thornton Hall project; if he will confirm that no prisoners will be accepted in Thornton Hall before 2014 at the earliest; and the total amount spent on the project to date [35358/10]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware the development of the new prison campus at Thornton Hall, Kilsallaghan, County Dublin is now proceeding on a phased basis. Phase one, which is currently in progress, comprises essential preliminary works to facilitate the prison development including the construction of a dedicated access road, the installation of off-site services and the construction of the perimeter wall of the prison. The second phase of the project involves the provision of 400 cells along with related support facilities suitable to accommodate up to 700 prisoners. Subsequent phases of the project will see the provision of the balance of the 1,000 cells thus providing a total of 1,400 cells when completed with operational flexibility to accommodate up to 2,200 prisoners, thus future proofing the development. Access Road I am pleased to advise the Deputy that a contract for the construction of the access road to serve the prison development was awarded to SIAC Construction Limited in July 2010 and construction work is already well underway in relation to this phase of the project. The access road and underpass are scheduled to be completed during February next year. Off-site Works A procurement competition for the installation of the off-site services (e.g. sewerage, water mains, communications and technology ducting) to serve the prison development issued to companies on the Irish Prison Service Construction Framework in August. The closing date was 6 October 2010 and the evaluation of the tenders by the Irish Prison Service and its technical advisors has commenced . It is intended to award a contract in respect of the off-site works in November. The work will take approximately eight months to complete. Perimeter Security Wall The procurement process for the design and construction of the perimeter security wall of the prison is already in progress. A pre-qualification competition from which suitably qualified contractors will be invited to tender for the design and construction of the perimeter security wall of the prison and related works issued on the E-Tenders web site in August 2010. The closing date for expressions of interest was 28 September 2010. Twenty submissions were received and the evaluation of these submissions is already underway. A panel comprising 5 to 7 contractors will be established from this procurement competition and these contractors will be invited to tender for the construction of the perimeter security wall and ancillary works later this month. Construction of the perimeter wall is scheduled to commence in the first quarter of 2011 and will take just under a year to complete. Prison Buildings As I mentioned previously in the House, my priority is to provide good quality, regime focussed prison accommodation at Thornton Hall prison campus as quickly as possible. A phased development of the prison campus is now being pursued. The next phase of the works will see the procurement of prison accommodation blocks and related support facilities commencing in the New Year using traditional procurement methods. I cannot give a date for completion of work on the first phase but realistically speaking one could not expect the new facility to be available before 2014.

In relation to expenditure on the project, the total expenditure to end September is €42.46 million. This sum includes the site cost of €29.9 million. The cost of the site was almost completely offset by the sale of surplus prison lands at Shanganagh, County Dublin for €29 million. An additional 8.7 acres has also been acquired at a cost of €1.3 million to provide a dedicated access route to the main prison site. This was done following representations from the local community which reflected concern in relation to the potential effect of increased traffic generated by the prison development.

This sum also includes €7.3 million expended on professional fees, €2.9 million on site preparation and various surveys, €0.5 million on landscaping and €0.5 million on security. As is the case with all major infrastructure projects a comprehensive set of geological, engineering, archaeological and environmental surveys have been undertaken at the site in order to advance the construction programme for the development. These surveys will enable the Irish Prison Service to accelerate the timeframe for the construction of the first phase of the prison buildings to a maximum of two years.