Replacement for Mountjoy to be built in north Dublin

The new facility to replace the antiquated Mountjoy Prison is to be built on a 150-acre site in North Dublin, it was announced today.

The site - which was purchased at a cost of €29.9 million - is at Thorntown, just off the N2 south of Ashbourne. It was picked from a list of 30 different possible sites.

Two new prisons, one for men and another for women, will be built. They will hold over 900 people in a large complex surrounded by a deep perimeter fence.

Up to 1,000 people will be employed as security, medical, teaching and support staff at the prisons and surrounding ancillary service facilities.

A final decision on the relocation of the Mountjoy training unit and new male and female young offenders' prisons has not been made.

It is also yet to be determined whether or not to move the Central Mental Hospital from Dundrum to a site adjacent to the new prison. The Government has agreed in principle to move the hospital, but details have yet to be finalised.

If it is moved, the hospital and prison complex would be kept separate.

The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, said the new prison will not be finished until 2008. On completion, the old Mountjoy complex will be sold.

Mr McDowell said the scheme was part of the modernisation of the Irish prison system. "The purchase of the site is a major step forward in modernising prison conditions and improving facilities for prisoners and staff," he said. "It will eliminate the current practice in Mountjoy of slopping out."

The new prison is to be built under a Public Private Partnership agreement.

The Irish Prisons Service has been directed to hold a series of consultations with local business and resident groups to allay any fears they may have, the minister said.