The Irish Times

The Grangegorman Development Agency is to run a competition to select a master plan for the €1 billion redevelopment of the 70-acre site in the north inner city. The competition, which was advertised on the Government's e-tendering website last week, will be one of the biggest to be put before the private sector by the State in recent years. The Grangegorman site occupies a pivotal position between Mountjoy Prison, the Mater Hospital and Dalymount Park - all of which are themselves due to be redeveloped in the near future. The site is also to be served by a Luas extension linking with O'Connell Street which is to be up and running in five years time, as part of Transport 21. According to Minister for Justice Michael McDowell: "It is no exaggeration to say that in a few years time this part of Dublin will be transformed" by the cumulative effect of these schemes which back on to the redeveloped Smithfield area. The Grangegorman Development Agency was set up just last year to redevelop the former St Brendan's Hospital grounds as a new campus for the Dublin Institute of Technology and the Health Service Executive.