Eugene Regan (Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister for his comprehensive statement on overcrowding in our prisons. He paints a rosy picture. It is one of utopia in which everything is okay, the Government has done everything necessary and there is no basis for any criticism by or observations from the Opposition. However, the Minister does have a case to answer. What he has outlined is as convincing as the statements of the Minister for Finance on the economy, that everything is under control in dealing with the banking crisis and the public finances. The reality is that the record of the Minister is dismal. There is still massive overcrowding in the prisons, as highlighted by the recent disturbance in Mountjoy Prison. Therefore, the Minister is on his own in saying it had nothing to do with prison numbers, practices such as slopping out and low standards in the prison which, to my mind, amount to inhuman and degrading treatment.

The Minister has stated there were 677 prison inmates, yet the Inspector of Prisons, Judge Michael Reilly, to whom the Minister did not refer in this regard, stated in his report of last July that, on examination of the duties and obligations owed to prisoners, in the case of Mountjoy Prison there were no factors that could be accepted by any reasonable person in suggesting the prison could accommodate in excess of 540 prisoners.

On the Thornton Hall project which has been an unmitigated disaster from the beginning-----