When he announced a plan for a new 400-space prison at Portlaoise yesterday the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, was reviving a project long planned but never acted upon.
For governments, ever anxious to increase prison spaces to cope with overcrowding and too many early releases, the capital cost of new jails has always been the great obstacle.
Earlier this year the then minister for justice, Mrs Owen, announced a plan to increase the prison system from 2,300 to 3,000 spaces at a cost of £135 million, or more than £192,000 per single cell. The tremendous cost had prevented the plan proceeding earlier in the last coalition government's term.
During the last general election campaign Fine Gael was won over to the idea of private sector financing of prisons, already advocated by Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats.
Under the proposed scheme, for which the new Portlaoise jail will be a test, private-sector companies will submit to the Department their plans for how the prison should be designed and funded. The companies chosen to finally put their plans into action will do so with an agreement in place for a long-term lease from the State.
The new prison will need planning permission, but officials said yesterday that for obvious security reasons only "outline" drawings of the prison, rather than detailed building plans, would be lodged with the local council for public comment.
The Minister made it clear yesterday that there was no question of private-sector companies being involved in running the prison.
He added that if the privately funded schemes did not appear feasible, a prison funded directly by the State would be built.
Mr O'Donoghue said Portlaoise had been chosen for a number of reasons, including the space available on a State-owned site beside the existing jail, and its proximity to Dublin, where 60 per cent of the population lives.
He said the development, which will be a major boost for the economy of Portlaoise and the surrounding region, did not mean similar projects would not be undertaken elsewhere.
Already work is in progress on new prisons or cell units at Limerick, Castlerea in Co Roscommon, Wheatfield and Mountjoy in Dublin. When these and the new Portlaoise jail are complete the prison service should reach 3,300 cell-spaces.
Asked about his pre-election promises of a "zero tolerance" policing policy, Mr O'Donoghue said that was still the plan.
"Zero tolerance does require an adequacy of prison spaces, and that is why we're moving ahead on this now," he said.
While he did not want to "rehash" the election campaign, it was clear that no criminal justice system could operate properly unless there were enough prison spaces for convicted criminals to serve their sentences.
The Minister said he had a number of other projects under preparation including a "crime forum" or "crime council", to be announced in the autumn, where all groups with an interest in criminal justice policy would have a chance to influence it.