Léargas Bid for Thornton Rejected
The Irish Prison Service today announced that they have broken off negotiations with the Léargas Consortium, the preferred bidder in the competition to design, build, maintain and finance a major prison facility at Thornton in North County Dublin.
The lengthy negotiations on the project came to a head recently. Léargas were formally requested to submit their final financial offer for the project. Following a detailed evaluation of this final financial offer from Léargas by the Irish Prison Service and its advisers, the offer was deemed to be not affordable in light of the significant increase in the cost of finance.
The parent Department of the Irish Prison Service (Justice, Equality and Law Reform) has confirmed that the project was simply unaffordable at the price being quoted by Léargas. In the current economic circumstances a more
affordable solution for the Exchequer is required.
The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr Dermot Ahern, T.D., re-iterated the Government's strong commitment to proceeding with a prison development at Thornton Hall. The Minister emphasised that, "while in the
short to medium term, the issue of increasing bed capacity in our prisons will be addressed by the provision of an additional 400 prison spaces this summer, nevertheless the need to replace the Mountjoy Prison Complex is well documented as is the critical need for additional prison spaces. What is now needed is a new project which reflects the current economic and fiscal realities and protects the taxpayers interests".
The Minister indicated that he will be bringing comprehensive new proposals to Government in a matter of weeks which take into account, inter alia, the present economic circumstances and prevailing market conditions including more competitive tender prices in the construction industry.
19 May, 2009
Press Officer
Irish Prison Service
e-mail: pressoffice@irishprisons.ie
phone: 087 6674284
Irish Prison Service
IDA Business Park,
Ballinalee Road, Longford,
Co. Longford
+353 43 3335100 Fax: +353 43 3335101
Email: info@irishprisons.ie
www.irishprisons.ie
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