Frank Feighan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for appearing before the committee today. The report or agreement is perfectly measured, patient and forensic. I cannot understand why the recommendations have not been implemented since 2010. The committee should agree to the call for this agreement to be implemented as soon as possible.

Prisons are not particularly nice places. Prison is where prisoners are denied a variety of freedoms by the state as a form of punishment. There is a great deal of pettiness in this case. Obviously, there are legacy issues. These are rather difficult to deal with, but they must be dealt with.

Reference was made to a multi-mode threat detector. What exactly is that? Can it replace full body searching? If this method is used here in prisons, including Portlaoise Prison, what is stopping it from being implemented in the North?

I find it difficult to understand why there was no provision for republican prisoners to develop their Irish language skills or cultural identity. There must be some mechanism in place, for example, using computers, to allow it. It should be simple. I am concerned about the references to political interference on the part of the Minister of Justice. If that happened down here, it would be a serious national scandal.

I have been in Maghaberry with my colleagues, Deputy Ó Cuív, Deputy Pringle and Deputy O'Sullivan. I took the view that those involved worked closely to try to alleviate the problems. I remember going to visit Marian Price in the hospital at Hydebank Wood. Again, I witnessed an issue that should have been resolved through common sense. Thankfully, the right decision was made to release her. Again, however, we came up against a situation where common sense seemed to be absent.

Perhaps this committee could visit Maghaberry again. I will leave it to the committee. We should do anything we can. First, we need to support this agreement and ask for it to be implemented in full immediately. We have waited six years and I thank the members of the independent assessment team for their patience. If there is something else the committee can do, we should do it. I would be willing to try to help in any way.