Ms Pauline McCabe:

No, I am not saying that at all. I was simply giving one of the perspectives expressed. Deputy Crowe put forward the point of view that one of the reasons people are subject to full body searches in prison as a whole relates to the movement of drugs. The point was made that republican prisoners say that they do not use drugs in prison, which is supported by the evidence. All I was saying is that when we do our investigations and look at the various arguments that are put forward, one of the arguments put forward by the prison service, which I understand, is that if one accepts that one group should not be searched, then there could be many circumstances where one should extend the argument to other groups.

I also made the point that because republican prisoners, for reasons I understand, do not engage in testing, it creates a doubly difficult situation in terms of equality where others say they do not use drugs and they will not be tested. That would create various difficulties in terms of equality of treatment and would have the potential to undermine the prison's position in some situations to prevent drugs being brought into prison.