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

Can I ask if the Department might consider what other options are available? That methodology is flawed and probably feeds what can sometimes be accused of being racism, although I do not believe it to be racism, where smaller locations are anticipating that a former hotel or other large building might contribute to their recovery in terms of tourism in the future. We need to prioritise where the people we are welcoming are going, for them to have the maximum ease while at the same time not upsetting the demographic balance of a particular small location.

I know the witnesses do not have an answer today but perhaps they could take it on board.

I want to divert to other matters. I know the clerk will be concerned about this but it is in the interests of using our time most efficiently. Neither the witnesses nor the committee is in a position to have the delegation before us as regularly as all of us might like. I will put some points on record with respect to the Irish Prison Service. Following our meeting on 17 January, I was accused on the public airwaves by the Prison Officers Association, POA, of seeking to shut down the mess committees. I am also informed that briefings are being held by the POA in prisons throughout the country, with members being told not to communicate with Deputies and that I in particular was seeking to shut down mess committees. It is totally incorrect to say there was any move to shut down facilities available to hard-working prison officers for hot meals and I would be to the fore in opposing same. That is not to confuse my wish for the appropriate procedures to be in place. I thought it peculiar that the Prison Officers Association would take to the national airwaves or provide a briefing in this way when in the same meeting I was highlighting issues of critical importance, such as sexual harassment, career blocking and illegal surveillance of that association's members. Nevertheless, it is what the association chose to do. I am on the side of the ordinary prison officer but, in line with our constitutional responsibility in here, I am also on the side of appropriate procedures and protection for staff and so on.

As a result of the meeting of 17 January relating to the prison service and subsequent research, I am concerned there may be a parallel investigative, judicial and enforcement system in operation across and within individual prisons when it comes to alleged wrongdoing by prison staff. Therefore I have a number of questions for the Secretary General, although I fully appreciate that he does not have the Irish Prison Service team with him today. I accept fully that he may not be in a position to answer questions and if he is not, we can move on and perhaps he can revert to us, preferably in writing. When will the report of the preliminary investigation carried out by the Inspector of Prisons arising from section 31(2) of the Prisons Act 2007 be published?