Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin, has indicated that the plan to turn Spike Island in Cork harbour into a tourist attraction is fully backed by the Department of Justice which owns the site.
Heritage campaigners in east Cork have expressed relief at the Government's decision to drop initial plans to build a "super prison" on Spike Island and instead transform it into a tourist attraction comparable to Alcatraz off San Francisco or Port Arthur in Tasmania.
In May last year Minister for Justice Michael McDowell announced plans to build a €70 million prison at the Spike Island location which previously housed a prison.
He told delegates at the Prison Officers' Association annual conference the new prison would house 450 inmates, replacing the existing facility at Rathmore Road, Cork city.
Shortly afterwards, Cobh Tourism chairman Michael Martin spearheaded a campaign to preserve the site, insisting the county had its very own "Devil's Island" on its doorstep.
Mr Martin held a "Save Spike" conference last October in Cobh during which an expert panel of speakers outlined the history of the island and spoke of similar places around the world that are now tourist attractions.
Yesterday, Mr Martin said he was "very pleased" to be informed of the Government's plans to build a showcase tourism and heritage centre on the island. The exact details of what the project will entail are not known at this stage.
"It would have been criminal not to turn Spike into a tourist attraction. I was very moved when I got the news. This island contains quintessential Irish history - you have a monastic site, you have a penal colony, people died here during the famine. There is so much history out there."
Minister for Enterprise Micheál Martin met Minister for Tourism John O'Donoghue over the last few weeks to discuss the project. The project is set to benefit from a portion of an additional payment of €70 million which was recently allocated to the Department of Tourism.
Sources have indicated that the new project will go hand in hand with plans for a major apartment and commercial development in nearby Haulbowline.
Island prisons attract huge tourist numbers - Alcatraz, for example, has around 1.4 million visitors each year while Fort McHenry, off Baltimore, which served as a transit prison during the American civil war, attracts around 700,000 visitors each year.
A new prison in the south-west is expected to be built near Kilworth in north Cork.
It is understood that agreement was reached in principle last December to locate the prison on lands at Lynch Camp. An exact time frame for the construction of the facility has yet to be decided, although it is likely to take a number of years.