The Irish Prison Service has banned Dublin City Council land surveyors from Mountjoy Prison.
The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the service hope to get €50-€100 million for the 12-acre city-centre site. But the lands' value could be cut dramatically if the city council imposes preservation orders on buildings on the site.
Under planning laws, a prison building cannot be made subject to a preservation order while it remains in use as a prison. If the Department sells the site while it remains in service no restrictions can be imposed.
Dublin City Council, on the other hand, cannot issue preservation orders, or rezone the property for low-cost housing unless it can prepare survey plans first.
In a note circulated to prison staff on October 14th, the prison's deputy governor, Mr D. Murphy wrote: "On the instructions of Irish Prison Service HQ, no members of Dublin City Council are to be permitted to enter the prison.
"In the event of members of the council presenting themselves at the gate for admission they should be refused enter [ sic] and contact [ sic] the chief officer on duty." The note was initially believed to mean that the service intended to bar councillors from visiting prisoners serving time in the jail.
Denying that it wanted to bar politicians, the Irish Prison Service said it wanted only to ensure that local authority land surveyors were barred from the jail.
The council is working on its next five-year development plan, though work on the document will not finish until well into the new year.
"We would wish them to complete their plan before there was a survey of the prison. We have told the Mountjoy authorities that they should not facilitate any request for surveys.
"We have long had good relationships with Dublin City Council and we have no wish to injure that in any way," said a Prison Service spokesman.
Labour Justice spokesman, Mr Joe Costello, criticised the decision saying one element of the State was trying to bar another element of the State.
"This is very serious. The City Council could decide to issue preservation orders on some of the buildings in Mountjoy," the Dublin North Central TD told The Irish Times.
