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.

However, a response from the Department of Justice to a query from Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy shows that 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.

'Incidents of trespass'

The response says this is due to a number of factors including a €55,000 cost related to “incidents of trespass” which required works, and €86,000 on a newly designed motorised gate due to “significant splay”.

“There have been incidents of trespass at the site, which necessitated expenditure to strengthen physical barriers at the boundary supplemented by additional electronic security measures.

Costs were also incurred undertaking repairs to damage done to a neighbouring property arising from the trespass incidents, removal of debris from the site and general cleaning of the area.”

The response says the IPS has a statutory obligation to maintain the site as it is a protected structure and that a working group had laid out options for the site to the department, which “continue to be kept under review”. 

Land Development Agency

It adds that preliminary talks have been held with the Land Development Agency over the potential development of the site, which has road access, water and electrical utilities.

Ms Murphy said while €325,000 may not seem like a lot of money, it would be better spent in the voluntary or community sector and “all of these wastes add up across the public sector”. 

She said some value for the site, which was last valued as agricultural land at a fraction of the cost spent to purchase it, has to be realised. However, she cautioned against building a new community on the remote site for the sake of it.

“It will likely go to the LDA and that could be for industrial use, but we have to get some value. Building a community would take more than just building houses.

It was bought in a different era which has been overtaken by events like the crash. But there has to be a higher use for it other than agriculture.”

In January 2005, the then government purchased the 150-acre site at Thornton for €29.9m. The Department of Justice subsequently purchased an additional 14.7 acres at a cost of €2.1m, bringing the total site bill to €32m.