More than €50 million has been spent on the now-shelved plan to develop a new prison at Thornton Hall in Co Dublin, the Department of Justice has told the Dáil Public Accounts Committee.

The committee is to invite officials of the department to give evidence on the expenditure on what Labour Party TD Joe Costello described as a “white elephant”.

The 150-acre site was purchased in 2005 as part of an initiative by the then government to develop a new modern prison on the site to replace Mountjoy Prison in Dublin city centre.

Initially, there were also plans to use some of the land to develop a replacement for the Central Mental Hospital.

In a letter to the committee, acting Department of Justice secretary general Noel Waters said the Thornton Hall site in Kilsallaghan, Co Dublin, had cost €29.9 million. A further €1.3 million was spent on acquiring a further 8.7 acres to facilitate a dedicated access route.

Closure

Mr Waters said additional costs of €791,150 were incurred in 2007 for the purchase of a further six acres of land adjacent to the Thornton Hall site, which was aimed at allowing for the closure and transfer of St Patrick’s Institution to the new campus.

“The expenditure to date also includes €7.87 million on professional, legal, planning and other technical fees, €3.08 million on site preparation and various surveys, €500,000 on perimeter planting and €500,000 on security (including site supervision).

“In addition, €3.46 million has been expended on the construction of the access road and a sum of €2.67 million has been incurred on the construction of the off-site works.”

Mr Waters said the costs involved were offset by the sale of surplus prison land at Shanganagh Castle, Co Dublin, which generated €29.6 million. He said that following a review of capital budgets across Government departments and the allocation for the prison capital programme in 2012, “it was decided not to proceed with the new prison development at Thornton Hall but instead to focus resources on the in-cell sanitation project in Mountjoy Prison”. He said that project was nearing completion.

Mr Waters said a small working group had been established, comprising representatives of the department, the Irish Prison Service and the Office of Public Works, to look at options for the future use of the house and lands at Thornton Hall.