Mountjoy and mental hospital may fetch €170m

The Government could generate up to €170 million by the sale of the Mountjoy Prison complex and the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum in south Dublin, property industry sources believe.

It is understood that the Department of Justice has been advised that the Mountjoy complex, which includes both the male prison, the nearby facility for women prisoners and the training unit, could reach €60 to €70 million on the market.

Property sources said that the Mountjoy site - between the North Circular Road and the Royal Canal - could accommodate a major new shopping complex and residential development.

The Central Mental Hospital site in Dundrum has increased substantially in value following the opening of the Luas line last year. The opening has led to a major surge in property values in adjacent areas in recent months.

The Dundrum lands could be worth more than €5 million per acre and could generate up to €100 million in total for the Government. "Every property company in Dublin would be after this site," one property source said.

The Department of Justice has paid €29.9 million for a 150-acre site at Thorntown in north Co Dublin as a location for a new prison complex to replace Mountjoy. The Government has also agreed, subject to further study, to transfer the Central Mental Hospital to the new site.

However, the Minister of State for Health, Mr Tim O'Malley, said that if the new Central Mental Hospital was developed on a separate site adjoining the Thorntown campus, "it would be adjacent to but not part of the prison complex".

The Department of Justice said that while cost was a consideration, the Thorntown site had been recommended by an expert committee which reviewed over 30 possible locations.

The Department of Justice said that for operations reasons "priority was given to finding a site within eight kilometres of the M50 motorway" Other locations understood to have been short-listed for the complex include another site along the N2 route to Ashbourne in Co Meath, as well as a location near Dublin Airport.