Cheaper farmland ‘not suitable’ for superprison site

A FARM that sold for a fraction of the cost of the one purchased by the Government for a prison complex would not have been a suitable alternative, the Department of Justice said yesterday.

The farm near Ratoath, Co Meath, sold for €26,000 an acre compared to almost €200,000 an acre for the farm bought by the Government.

The 150-acre site at Thorton Hall, where a “superprison” is to replace the Mountjoy jail complex, cost the State €29.9 million.