Advert campaign launched by prison site protesters

Residents of north Co Dublin have stepped up their protest against the proposed prison at Thornton Hall with an advertising campaign calling on the Government to abandon the project.

The Rolestown St Margaret's Action Group said it wanted to make sure its message to the Government to pull out of the 30 million deal was heard by their TDs and by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell.

The advertising campaign calls for an alternative to the proposed 150-acre site and criticises the criteria used by the expert committee which selected the Thornton Hall location.

A spokeswoman said the group also criticised the "huge cost" of the site, its suitability, and "the fact that this will not happen before a long, drawn-out period in the courts and in Europe".

The State's purchase of the land is due to be completed on October 1st.

However, the action group believes the Government would abandon the project if it knew how long it could take to establish the prison. It has urged the Government "to pull out now rather than waste hundreds of millions of taxpayers' money.

"Thornton Hall is totally unsuitable by the expert committee's own criteria. We have been trying to tell Minister McDowell and the other Cabinet members that a huge mistake has been made by agreeing to buy this site and by forging ahead with this plan.

"If it goes ahead it will result in a massive waste of taxpayers' money and will have untold consequences for our community, environment and heritage.

"The final bill for this prison could be over €500 million - no one in Government actually knows the final cost. We are trying to alert taxpayers to this huge waste of money."

Labour Party justice spokesman Joe Costello has called for an independent inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the purchase of the site.

Mr Costello said the site had cost eight times the normal price of agricultural land and that objective criteria were "totally jettisoned when the final decision was made".

Earlier this year the High Court granted leave to a local man to challenge the construction of the prison.

The prison service, however, has begun assembling a project management team to plan construction of the complex.