State ‘squandered’ €15m on prison site buy

MORE than €15 million of taxpayers’ money was “squandered” on giving the owner of the Thornton Hall prison site a stigma bonus, the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) heard yesterday.

Opposition members of the body expressed outrage at the “extraordinary” way the €29.9m purchase was handled by the Justice Department. The State’s financial watchdog found the Government paid more than twice the market value for the 150-acre stretch of land in north Co Dublin, which is to house the replacement for Mountjoy Jail.

The Comptroller and Auditor General John Purcell noted the Prison Service was told by property consultants charged with finding a suitable site that land in the Fingal area would usually go for €75,000-€100,000 an acre but due to the “stigma” of the vendor being blamed locally for the erection of a prison it would cost €200,000 an acre.