The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Michael McDowell said plans are 'definitely on track' for building work to start on the new prison complex at Thornton in north Co Dublin in March 2007.
Expressions of interest from developers have been invited and the Irish Prison Service expects to be in a position to go to tender in relation to the main development in the coming months, according to Mr McDowell.
The projects will be developed through a public private partnership on a design, build, finance and maintain basis.
"The Mountjoy complex is totally unsuitable to accommodate prisoners in the 21st century. Apart altogether from the Dickensian conditions, the site is impossible to secure from a drug consumption point of view and we saw this week some prisoners in St Patrick's Institution attempting to take advantage of that," he said.
The new prison complex will be constructed with an extensive perimeter to prevent drugs being thrown over the wall and it will have full rehabilitative facilities, including football pitches and other open spaces," he added.
The Irish Prison Service has advised that with the population increasing and the Minister's policy of ensuring that people convicted of violent murders serve 15 to 20 years combined with the increasing number of mandatory sentences for gun and drug related crime, will take up a large number of prison spaces.
The new prison complex at Thornton will create 600 additional prison places.
Two separate project management teams are in place to manage the construction of prison and the disposal of Mountjoy. Mr McDowell said he was determined to realise the best possible deal for the taxpayer in the disposal of the site.
"Some Labour councillors on Dublin City Council have already made efforts to restrict the site's value by proposing cynical motions to designate parts of Mountjoy as of major historical and architectural significance. Likewise, Fingal County Council has passed a motion designating the fields of Thornton as an area of architectural conservation," he said.
Mr McDowell said he would "not allow these blatant efforts at obstruction to delay us or deter us from our aim to bring Irish prisons into the 21st century."