TDs vote against investigation into purchase of €30m prison site

TDS voted yesterday to reject an opposition motion for an investigation into the €30 million purchase of land in north Co Dublin as a site for a proposed new super prison and central mental hospital.

Government deputies rejected calls from opposition politicians and pleas from residents living close to the site to put at least a temporary halt to the sale to allow the Comptroller and Auditor General to investigate.

A Government amendment praising the Justice Minister Michael McDowell for securing the site was passed by the Dáil. Mr McDowell, in a Dáil debate, defended the purchase of Thornton Hall after opposition deputies claimed it was a bad deal to buy farmland worth e6m for five times that amount.