Vol. 322 No. 7
asked the Minister for Justice if his plans for the prison complex at Wheatfield, Clondalkin, County Dublin, include incorporating any lands in the ownership of Dublin Corporation or Dublin County Council, which had previously been designed for housing; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
88.
asked the Minister for Justice if his earlier statements that the proposed location of the prison at Wheatfield, Clondalkin, County Dublin, is more than one mile from any existing houses is correct; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
89.
asked the Minister for Justice if he will make the general design and plan of the proposed prison complex at Wheatfield, Clondalkin, County Dublin, available to the local authorities concerned and to interest resident groups.
90.
asked the Minister for Justice if he has been informed by the local authorities concerned that water and sewerage services to the location of the proposed prison complex at Wheatfield, Clondalkin, County Dublin, are inadequate and are likely to be so for some time to come; and if, in the light of the local authorities advice, he intends to proceed with his building plans.
With the permission the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Question Nos. 87 to 90, inclusive, together.
There has been full compliance with the provisions of section 84 of the Local Government (Planning and Development) Act, 1963, as regards consultation with the planning authority and with the Minister for the Environment in respect of the prison for women and the place of detention for male juveniles which are to be provided on lands owned by me, as Minister for Justice, at Wheatfield, Clondalkin, County Dublin. All information required in this connection was made available when consultation took place.
For obvious reasons it is not the practice to make generally available outside my Department material which discloses particulars even of the general design and plan of any place of custody. Nevertheless, within reason, I am prepared to make information available to the local community. When I saw the residents' representatives on 17 January last I showed them drawings and illustrative material and their representatives could now be shown a model and have it explained to them.
Subsequent to the acquisition of the lands at Wheatfield, an area of about two-and-a-half acres was exchanged with Dublin Corporation for a slightly smaller area of adjoining land owned by the corporation. This exchange was made to straighten a very irregular boundary and it was to the mutual benefit of both parties. No lands owned by Dublin County Council were acquired.
As regards water and sewerage services, my information is that improved and augmented services are already envisaged for the whole area. It is intended that these developments will be coordinated with the development of custodial facilities on the Wheatfield lards and that they will materialise in conjunction with them.
As regards housing in the area, apart from one or two isolated houses, the housing estates nearest to the site are those known as Ballyfermot Upper, Neilstown and Rowlagh. They are all about a quarter of a mile away and the Neilstown and the Rowlagh houses will be even more separated from the site than this distance indicates when the proposed new motorway materialises between them and Wheatfield. My information is that this motorway development also involves the relocation of the itinerant housing settlement which currently adjoins the property.
