Chambers Ireland has said that, while the Government’s priority in Budget 2012 must be to return the public finances to a sound position, capital investment must be prioritised as a means of unblocking bottlenecks and enhancing productivity.

The Government is halting work on Metro North, Metro West, DART Underground, the Navan Rail line, the Thornton Hall prison and the Monaghan to Derry road through Northern Ireland.

THE independent police watchdog should be able to examine Garda practices and policies without having to get the permission of the Justice Minister, according to the state’s human rights body.

ONE of the more strident sayings in our period of construction mania between 2004 and 2007 was “build it and they will come”.

Green Junior Minister Mary White has said the new Thornton Hall prison should see an end to the practice of slopping out in prisons.

THE Public Accounts Committee has said if its powers are not beefed up it will become the watchdog that cannot bite as it tries to police those who waste taxpayers’ money.

More than 40 prison officers have been taken on to staff 550 extra jail spaces despite a recruitment embargo, it was revealed today.

Work on the new Thornton Hall prison in Dublin will begin later this year.

THE consortium seeking to build the Thornton Hall prison in Co Dublin wanted “hundreds of millions of euro” more than the original price submitted, Justice Minister Dermot Ahern has said.

THE possibility of signing a contract for the Thornton Hall prison complex has officially been put back to the end of the year.

Minister for Justice Michael McDowell’s purchase of a €30m Thornton Hall prison site was a waste of taxpayers’ money by a blundering minister, it was claimed in the Dáil today.

RTÉ will be established as a company under broadcasting legislation to be published later this year.

The Minister for Justice is to write to every member of the RTÉ Authority to complain about Tuesday's edition of Prime Time.