Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

We on this side of the House have raised this issue continually over the past 18 months. The crisis was flagged to the Minister and I remind him of his comments in September 2009 on the publication of a most damning report on the Irish prison system by Judge Michael Reilly, the inspector of prisons. Judge Reilly spoke about prisons being dangerous and unsafe. In response, the Minister said numbers in Mountjoy Prison would be kept below 600, in so far as that was practicable. The current data on bed capacity in Mountjoy show prisoner numbers to be in excess of 70 above the dangerous level, as estimated by Judge Reilly.

Does the Minister regard it as acceptable that inmates in Mountjoy are sleeping on benches, in large communal cells, in offices and in the reception area? Prisoners are occupying the shower areas in the basement of the prison. Mountjoy is in a most dangerous condition not only for prisoners, but for the staff working on a full-time basis. It is inhumane and unacceptable to have prisoners sleeping in a sitting-up position because of overcrowding and lack of space.

I ask the Minister, notwithstanding what he said in response to Deputy Rabitte's question about Thornton Hall, that this crisis not await developments in Thornton Hall, dates unknown. He mentioned extra prison space in other parts of the country but both he and his Department are oblivious to what is needed as root and branch reform of the role and function of our prisons because of the adherence of this and successive Governments over the years to the Victorian concept of prison in society.

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