Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Significant sums were spent over the past three years on enhancing library facilities, yet libraries have been closed and there has been difficulty in accessing libraries, particularly in Arbour Hill, Cloverhill and Mountjoy. This issue arises in the context of the different programmes for prisons’ officers, whether they relate to regime management plans or the organisation of the prisons more generally. The library seems to be the first facility to go every time, with the additional gym instructor being cancelled. Access to education is always the first thing to be removed. On our recent visit, we talked about staff being occupied by court visits and so on. That is a necessary part of the process and it would not be a solution to have remote hearings only, and perhaps the courts should come to the prisons if there is an overwhelming issue in that regard. Are the regime management plans, following lockdown and from now on, task specific or office specific? For example, are staff attached specifically to committals or to the library? Is there an opportunity for enhanced efficiency? If, for example, committals take up only a part of the day, could that person then be assigned to a different task, such as opening the library again?