Minister for Justice Michael McDowell strongly defended the price paid for land for a new prison in north Dublin. Denying that he had embarked on "a dodgy deal", the Minister said: "The Comptroller and Auditor General does not state that too much was paid for Thornton.
"His main conclusion was that a well managed third-party approach might have allowed the Prison Service to procure suitable land at a much lower price than was paid.
"What he meant by a well managed third-party approach, meant that the site would be acquired in secret, that nobody would be told the State was involved or that land was being sought for the most significant penal development in the history of the State. There would have been no public advertisement, no information given in Dáil answers, no local consultation, and a very restrictive assessment process.
"The accounting officer of my department has already gone on record in stating that in the light of the nature of this particular acquisition and project, to ensure proper accountability, he took a deliberate and principled decision not to use the third-party, furtive, acquired by stealth approach.
"The strategic, moral and practical reasons for that decision are outlined in the report which has been published by the Comptroller and Auditor General and have not been contradicted by the Comptroller and Auditor General."
Jim O'Keeffe (FG) said the purchase was a disgraceful waste of public money.
