Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is also for me. There is a bigger point here. With an average spend per day of €10 and we take the 60 off the staff number, it comes to €9,400 per day multiplied by 365 giving €3,431,000 in turnover. This is a very crude calculation. If we took the cost of that food at €5, because it is about €11.50 there, and we will divide that by two, that gives a profit of €1,715,500 for the year. We need to bear in mind that my information is that all these other things are routinely drawn from central prison stores. We know they do not pay anything for heat or light. We know the chefs and prisoners who help are not paid from their funds; the Irish Prison Service pays them from the central funds. There is no rent and there are no staffing costs.

Ms McCaffrey can correct me if I am wrong in this. My research indicates the mess committees have no memoranda of articles of association. They have no rules. They are not registered charities. They are not limited companies. The Comptroller and Auditor General, the top accountant in the State is present. He can tell me if I am off the wall in my very crude calculation. They may have at their disposal in the region of €1,715,500 in profit, subsidised by taxpayers' payment of resources for the Irish Prison Service's stores, staff costs, heat and light. Nobody audits that money. Nobody knows where it goes and nobody knows what it is used for.