The new prison at Thornton Hall, north Co Dublin, will go ahead as planned according to the Minister for Justice Michael McDowell this evening.
Speaking in the Dáil tonight McDowell said the project "will go ahead and the campaign of obstruction against it won't succeed".
The project is part of the Department of Justice's plans to replace Mountjoy Prison with a new prison on a 150-acre site it purchased for €30 million.
However, the project has irked local residents who say the super prison should be subject to normal environmental and planning regulations.
The local Rolestown St Margaret's Action Group (RSMAG) in Kilsallaghan, north Co Dublin today delivered themed Christmas cards to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and all Dáil TDs.
"This massive super prison will destroy our way of life, and our heritage, which once gone is lost forever. "It has already cost the taxpayers €30 million to buy Thornton hall farm - and it's just not suitable," said RSMAG spokesperson Nessa Shevlin.
However, Mr McDowell dismissed the objections in the Dáil by saying "what I'm amused by is that the neighbouring landowners suddenly say that the fields I bought are of huge architectural significance. What was there when they built their houses? What's under their houses? Nobody has ever explained that."
"Just because I buy it, it becomes of architectural significance when they have built a piazza around it without having any architectural investigations carried out," Mr McDowell added.