The Department of Justice spent £2.8 million building a new kitchen and recreation area in Mountjoy Prison in Dublin, according to the report. The project began in 1993 but the new kitchen did not come into operation until last March. The Comptroller says: "The way in which this part of the prisons' building programme was managed suggested deficiencies in the Department's planning." In 1993 the Department sought permission from the Department of Finance to spend £2.36 million on the project. The kitchen was practically completed by September 1994 but it became clear that the points in the building where food was served to prisoners also needed refurbishment. This cost a further £430,000.
The Comptroller said he asked the accounting officer at the Department of Justice about the 18-month delay in bringing the kitchen into operation. The officer said that during the period, the Minister for Justice had decided to reintegrate HIV positive prisoners into the main prison population. It became clear that excellent standards of catering hygiene would be important and the way food was served at Mountjoy would have to be changed. He also said some of the delay was due to the need to test the catering system.