Cost to maintain Thornton Hall prison site rockets 

Thornton Hall: While €51,000 was spent on security and maintenance at the site in 2018 and €63,000 in 2019, that figure jumped to €325,000 in 2020.

The cost of maintaining the site of a proposed prison in North Dublin was six times higher last year than in the two years previously.

Thornton Hall was purchased in the mid-2000s to be the home of a €525m prison to replace Mountjoy. However, despite more than €50m being spent on purchasing and servicing the site, a brick has never been laid and the Irish Prison Service (IPS) has indicated it has no active interest in the site.