Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis na Teachtaí Mark Ward agus Ruairí Ó Murchú for bringing forward this important Private Members' Bill. It is nice to hear the initiatives being rolled out by the Minister of State also.

I honestly believe that the community policing and the different initiatives the Minister of State talked about are too little too late. Drugs, drug crime, and the money around it is just a whole epidemic in every town and village now. I spoke about my area several times in this House. There is intimidation, demonisation and striking of fear into mothers, dads, grandparents, aunts and siblings of those people who get sucked into what they think is a very salubrious way to live. They find out differently, however.

I am delighted to see the huge and massive successes of the Criminal Assets Bureau, CAB, in recent years, but we do not have half enough of them. I salute the work of CAB. The tone and import of the Bill is to try to get the seized funds back into the disadvantaged communities that have been terrorised by these gangs. With regard to the seven year waiting list, I understand there is a protocol, but I believe it is too long and too slow. We need that funding and we need much more funding with it.

We do not have enough gardaí. We are starved of resources for the Garda and starved of numbers. We had good numbers during Covid, but now they have gone back into Templemore. We need them. We have excellent people. In Limerick we had huge problems with crime with different gangs. I salute those people who did a huge clean up there. We could learn a lot from there for other areas from the Chief Superintendent Dave Sheahan and Superintendent John Courtney, and a whole plethora of good gardaí.

I believe that there are issues when people are convicted and imprisoned. There are huge issues in the Prison Service. I have written to the Minister for Justice, I have raised it in this House and I have written to the Secretary General of the Department. A blind eye was turned.

I listened earlier to Deputy Pringle reporting on the horrific cases of inaction in the HSE, but what is going on inside the Prison Service is quite shocking also. There are two prisons in my area. One is in Cork, which I never got a complaint from. I have a stream of people contacting me, whistleblowers too, about what is going on in Limerick. A cabal is operating there, I have said this before. They like to call themselves the mob. They like to be known as this. They terrorise families. It goes right to the very top of the Prison Service and right to the top of the prison officers' union. There are many good people there, and officers who try to stand up, but they get silenced, intimidated, bullied and sullied. Their good names are destroyed. This is shocking. Prisoners say things that are not right to the prison officers and spread things. We saw a prison officer recently who came out. Deputy Peadar Tóibín raised this also, as did Deputy Marc MacSharry. How will we deal with the crimes outside if we cannot deal with what is going on inside? There is supposed to be reform and retraining and so on.

I compliment Michael Clifford of the Irish Examiner, who has also exposed this many times, but to no avail. I wrote about an interview process that was going on too, where proper procedures were not adhered to. People are entering into relationships with each other. The Secretary General thinks this is okay and the Minister thinks it is okay. We must root out this rot that is inside in the Prison Service. As I said, Cork is impeccable. Other Deputies are getting it too, however, if they would care to raise it or not. This should not be going on. I would say that to whistleblowers. I knew a very beautiful young girl who lost her life and then, in order to intimidate a prison officer's family, her family name was impersonated. Horrible things happened, such as death notices being sent and horrible allegations about prison officers. This is despicable and has no place in a modern society or a modern prison service that needs to be reformed and needs to rehabilitate the prisoners who go in there. Some people make mistakes in their lives and end up there, but they try to get out of it.

The good staff try to stand up but they are bullied and their names are sullied. Awful things are said about them. When An Garda Síochána visited the prison to interview a prison officer who complained, the records disappeared, and the video footage disappeared of the gardaí entering the prison. This is how bad it is. It is very serious.

I am sorry for straying away from the Bill. The Bill is very important but we also need huge reform of the people inside the system. There were union members who decided to go for positions in the union and they have been literally destroyed as well because they challenged the chair of that union. There are huge issues and huge failures. The prisoners inside are being used by senior managers of the prison to tarnish good prison officers. This is unbelievable.

It is 100 years since the freedom of our State and our independence. I want action. The Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, is in the Chamber tonight. I want the Minister for Justice, Deputy Heather Humphreys, and the Secretary General to deal with this. Deputy Tóibín has called for this to be dealt with, as has Deputy Marc MacSharry, but it is futile. Good people's names are being sullied and destroyed. Very senior and female prison chiefs are also doing this bullying and intimidation. It is a cabal. They like to be known as the mob and they spread their fear that way-----

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