C&AG report: Super prison site bought for €50m now worth only €2m

The State has spent more than €50m to date on the doomed super prison project at Thornton Hall — and the north Dublin site is currently valued at just €2m.

The C&AG report said the total projected cost in 2006 for the construction of Thornton — at a massive €525m — was more than treble the estimated bill when the government agreed the development in 2004.

The report said the cost of the entire project appears to have been “significantly understated” by the Department of Justice and that the anticipated cost of refurbishing Mountjoy Prison, which Thornton was supposed to replace, was overstated.