Minister 'hoping and expecting' extension of former Cork prison will be completed early

Sinn Féin TD Thomas Gould said it was a betrayal of the locals who had been promised in 2016 that the old building would not also be used as a prison

The minister said that the €495m building project will include “a large extension to the existing Cork Prison on the site of the old, decommissioned prison”, providing spaces for approximately 100 women and 230 men. File picture: Larry Cummins

Preparation work to create 330 new prison spaces on the site of the old Cork prison, which closed in 2016, is to start early next year, and the project could be completed a year earlier than planned, the justice minister has said.

Fianna Fáil TDs have insisted that the plans represent an extension of the current prison rather than a second prison, but a Sinn Féin TD says the local people, who are opposed to the project, “aren’t fools”.