diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 2350a1f..56f015d 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -551,7 +551,7 @@ pkgconfig.generate(
   variables: [
     'datadir=${prefix}/share',
     'pluginsdir=${libdir}/@0@'.format(lib_name),
-    'girdir=${datadir}/gir-1.0',
+    'girdir=@0@/share/gir-1.0'.format(get_option('prefix-dev')),
     'typelibdir=${libdir}/girepository-1.0',
   ],
   uninstalled_variables: [
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
index f9d558c..3cac593 100644
--- a/meson_options.txt
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -9,6 +9,11 @@ option('enable-gir',
   choices: ['auto', 'true', 'false'],
   description: 'gobject introspection .gir generation'
 )
+option('prefix-dev',
+  type: 'string',
+  value: '',
+  description: 'Like prefix but for dev output of the package'
+)
 option('enable-vapi',
   type: 'boolean',
   value: 'true',