€40m to be spent on prison before building begins

MORE than €40 million will be spent on the troubled Thornton Hall prison project before a cell is built.

A contract worth €2.6m is being signed this week for a company to build a 1.5km access road, including an underpass, to the site in rural north Dublin.

The first phase of the resurrected project was announced by Justice Minister Dermot Ahern yesterday.