Thornton Hall prison site too expensive, says Government watchdog

The State's spending watchdog has criticised the price the Government paid for the site of a planned new prison complex on the outskirts of Dublin.

In his latest annual report, the Comptroller and Auditor General says the €29.9m paid for the Thornton Hall site is likely to have been twice the market price for land in that area.

John Purcell says the main reason for the high price was the Government's disclosure that it was seeking a site for a new prison to replace Mountjoy.

The site could have been bought for significantly less as agricultural land and then used for a prison, he said.

Mr Purcell also says it was a false economy to buy such a large site for so much, even though it would allow for future expansion.

His view was backwed by Green Party Finance spokesperson and member of the Public Accounts Committee, Dan Boyle TD.

"The Comptroller's report, as usual, will provide a hectic work schedule for the Public Accounts Committee for the year ahead, and while the PAC cannot deal with policy issues, it is clear that the misuse of public money is occurring because of badly formulated and badly implemented Government policies," said Mr Boyle.

"Centre stage in this litany of incompetence is the newly appointed and suddenly reticent Tánaiste, Justice Minister Michael McDowell. He has overseen the farce in which his department has involved itself, at Thorton Hall in north Dublin, where a site has been acquired for a proposed new prison at a price far above market value."

The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform refuted Mr Purcell's view in a statement issued today, however.

"It was, and remains, the unanimous view of the senior officials dealing with this matter in the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the Irish Prison Service that an anonymous third party approach would not have been appropriate or practical in the purchase of a site for the most significant prison development in the history of the State," the statement read.

"The use of a third party would not, in our view, have been sufficiently transparent to provide the necessary accountability, would not have identified the best sites and could have led to grave difficulties with the vendor.

"The Department’s Accounting Officer and Secretary General, Séan Aylward, is satisfied that it would not have been possible to obtain a site as suitable as Thornton for any less than was paid.

"This view is reinforced by the fact that, to the best of our knowledge, no site of comparable quality and suitability closer to Dublin city centre has changed hands in recent times for less than was paid for Thornton."