€150,000 fee for jail site agent queried

OPPOSITION politicians last night questioned the payment of €150,000 to an agent involved in finding and buying the site of a new prison in north Dublin.

In reply to a written question from Fine Gael’s Jim O’Keeffe, Justice Minister Michael McDowell said an agreed fixed fee of €150,350 has been paid to the agent for the “sourcing and purchase” of a site for the new prison.

The Government paid €30m for a 150-acre greenfield site at Thornton Hall in the north of the county.

The Mountjoy Complex Replacement Site committee, which met a handful of times between July 2004 and January 2005, was advised by Ronan Webster of property consultants CBRE Gunne.

The committee first heard about Thornton Hall at its last meeting at the end of January.

Minutes from the meeting reveal Mr Webster informed the committee that details of an available site were submitted to the Irish Prison Service before Christmas.

Mr Webster inspected the site and held preliminary discussions with the selling agent. At the end of the meeting, it was decided to recommend the site for purchase.

Mr McDowell said of the €150,000: “this was on an agreed fixed fee and was not related to the price paid for the site, which was purchased at Thornton. In addition, fees were paid for engineering services and site investigation work.”

Mr O’Keeffe said: “this reply presents a whole set of further questions which I will be following up. How on earth was a fee of €150,000 run up? I understand this was an agreed fee, but agreed by whom, and for what? The minister must also clarify what services were provided by the agent? And the question arises: who was the agent acting for? I will be asking the minister about the fees paid for engineering services and site investigation work.

“Furthermore, I believe Mr McDowell paid eight times the market value for Thornton Hall. It was worth about e4m and he paid €30m. This farmland was unzoned agricultural land, which had an average market value of €25,000 in that area, yet the minister paid €200,000.

“And I do not believe that proper consideration was given to the purchase, which was completed with unseemly haste.”

Residents living close to the site of the new prison oppose the plan and there is a possibility Fingal County Council will classify it an area of exceptional archaeological significance.

Details of 30 sites were submitted for consideration by the committee.