Services to add €8.5m to cost of prison

THE €30m site purchased for the new Mountjoy prison will cost the taxpayer a further €8.5m to equip with water, gas and sewage services, it emerged last night.

The Department of Justice is planning to build a prison complex on a 150-acre site in Thorntown in north Dublin by 2008, when the antiquated Mountjoy will close.

Fine Gael justice spokesman Jim O’Keeffe, who obtained the information on the extra costs in a Dáil question, said the project was a criminal waste of money.