Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 106: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the progress made in installing mobile phone signal blocking technology in prisons here. [46448/09]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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In a prisons context, mobile phones are viewed as highly valuable commodities which can assist in illegal activity and eliminating their supply is one of the major challenges facing prisons worldwide.

The Irish Prison Service is dealing with this problem through a multifaceted approach which incorporates measures to prevent the smuggling of mobile phones into prisons, search and find operations aimed at locating and removing phones from within the prisons and the installation of mobile phone blocking technology.

Airport style scanners and x-ray machines are now in operation at the entrances of all closed prisons (excluding the Training Unit and Arbour Hill). Cell and area searches for contraband such as mobile phones take place in all prisons on a daily basis. These include random, targeted and intelligence led searches. These searches have been particularly effective and local intelligence indicates that the availability of mobile phones has decreased across the prison system.

In relation to mobile phone inhibition, the Irish Prison Service is currently undertaking trials of three different types of mobile phone inhibition systems at 3 separate locations namely Mountjoy and Limerick prisons and the Midlands / Portlaoise Prison Complex.

All three systems are currently undergoing a rigorous evaluation process which includes external independent analysis. The systems in Midlands, Mountjoy and Limerick Prisons are still live and working with varying degrees of success. The inhibition system at Portlaoise is still under development involving refinement of software which is unique and site specific.

All three trials will continue. No decision has been made by the Irish Prison Service to plump for any particular mobile phone inhibition provider or technology.