Super-prison contract delayed until end of year

THE possibility of signing a contract for the Thornton Hall prison complex has officially been put back to the end of the year.

And there are indications this could prove to be ambitious, with suggestions that negotiations with the preferred bidder may not prove to be successful. In that case, the state, which is facing a worsening prison overcrowding problem, will have to start fresh negotiations with other bidders.

The “super prison” has been beset by controversy, not least the e41 million which has already been spent on it, including e30m on the original site in north Dublin. The prison will not now be ready, at the earliest, until 2013, at least two years late. Justice Minister Dermot Ahern has revealed the contract would not be signed until later this year.