The Thornton Hall project has attracted controversy since 2005 when the Minister for Justice at the time, Michael McDowell, criticised the €30 million purchase of the 150-acre site. The price per acre was far higher than any other sales in the area at that time.
JANUARY 2005 A 150-acre site at Kilsallaghan near Swords, Co Dublin, is acquired for €30 million. The price per acre is far higher than any other sales in the area at that time, prompting criticism of then minister for justice Michael McDowell.
The site is to be the location for a new 2,200-berth super prison to replace Mountjoy Prison. The near 1,500 extra spaces it will provide will end chronic prison overcrowding. A new mental hospital is also planned at the site to replace the Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum, Dublin.
JULY 2006 The Leargas consortium, comprising Michael McNamara Construction, Barclays Private Equity and GSL, is among a shortlist of four bidders.
JULY 2006 McDowell unveils plans for a new urban village at the Mountjoy complex. The regeneration will begin when the site is vacated. It will be carried out under the direction of the Office of Public Works, with a design team headed by one of the State's foremost architectural firms, Heneghan Peng.
OCTOBER 2006 Green Party chairman Dan Boyle, then an opposition TD, tells the Public Accounts Committee that the price paid for the Thornton site was eight times higher than the market rate.
MAY 2007 Leargas confirmed as preferred bidder. Talks begin between consortium and State.
AUGUST 2007 The High Court rejects a move by residents of Kilsallaghan to halt the prison.
MAY 2008 Taoiseach Brian Cowen tells the Dáil there is "no indication" the talks with Leargas have stalled. He was speaking as McNamara withdraws from five Dublin public-private partnership social housing schemes.
NOVEMBER 2008 It emerges that almost €11 million has been spent on the Thornton Hall site preparing for construction.
MARCH 2009 The visiting committee of Mountjoy Prison says it believes Thornton Hall will be delayed for a number of years.
MARCH 2009 Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern says the contracts with Leargas will be signed "later this year".
MAY 2009 Irish Prison Service and Department of Justice announce its two-year negotiations with Leargas have ended because the prices quoted are too high.
JULY 2009 Plans to build a new Central Mental Hospital on the Thornton Hall site beside the new jail are scrapped.
APRIL 2010 The overcrowding in the prison system, which Thornton Hall was supposed to alleviate, reaches record highs, with more than 800 inmates freed because there is nowhere to house them in the prison system.
JULY 2010 Ahern announces plans to proceed with the Thornton Hall plan but with a 700 berth rather than 2,200 berth facility, as initially envisaged.
DECEMBER 2010 Spending on the jail has reached €43.3 million before the award of the main contract has been tendered for. Construction of the perimeter wall, which is likely to cost tens of millions, is set to begin in the first quarter of 2011 and take a year to complete.
APRIL 2011 Minister for Justice Alan Shatter said review of the decision to build the prison will be held
JULY 2011 Thornton Hall review submits report to Cabinet
JULY 2011 Government approves plan to go-ahead with project "in principle".