Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the contributions. The three contributors have painted a very depressing and worrying picture of the conditions and treatment meted out to prisoners in Maghaberry Prison.

My recollection is that in 2015, the chief inspector of prisons presented a very damning report on the conditions in the prison about management, inefficiencies and a lack of resources that have been referred to by all the contributors today. Subsequently, we were given to understand that some progress has been made in implementing various recommendations and that the prison authorities had engaged positively. Have improvements been made since the chief inspector's report in 2015?

In July 2016, the Northern Ireland Executive published an action plan to follow up on the Fresh Start agreement regarding commitments to end paramilitarism. The plan also included a commitment to establish a panel to review the operation of the separated regime. Has that happened? Has the progress or lack of progress in addressing these issues been monitored?

Everybody on this island and on our neighbouring island should be conscious of the fact that tensions in prisons are a worrying feature in society. By this stage we should have learned our lessons in respect of difficulties and a lack of commitment to resolve prison conditions.