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

I would like to return to the question of prisons and Covid. I think prisons did an incredible job, especially in the first wave, of protecting prisoners and staff in overcrowded congregated settings from what could have been an absolute catastrophe. It came at a significant price, however, and there is an opportunity to learn from that. It is clear from going through all the reports of the Inspector of Prisons that prisoners reported very significant information about how not to get Covid but much less information about what to do if they had it and how that was to be managed. There was a significant mental health impact from the isolation that was necessary, especially in the first wave, including the missing of family visits. There is an opportunity there.

I would like to refer to the staff survey that was done in 2021 by the Office of the Inspector of Prisons. The staff recommended in-cell telephones and video calls to improve relationships with family members and to improve mental health. This would have obvious benefits for education and training and access to mental health supports, which is a big problem irrespective of Covid. That recommendation came from the staff. Sometimes one is criticised for providing services to prisoners, but this is a staff recommendation. I want to amplify it from the staff survey.

There is an ongoing concern about the mental health impact of the current quarantine experience. Ms McPhillips is aware of that but I want to flag it to her because it will come back. These things can come back in many different ways from a cost perspective to the State. In terms of the directions that were possible under the Act, it was July 2021 before a direction was given. However, the sunset side of things is not clear with regard to unlocking and unwinding the restrictions on exercise and so on. Ms McPhillips is aware of that also but these are the difficulties.

We spoke in great detail about Dóchas at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, but the overcrowding in Dóchas and the refurbishment that is necessary are very significant. There is an ongoing problem about the profile of people there with overwhelming addiction, mental health and welfare issues, many of whom should not be there but need to be in supported facilities. I am not sure where the Department is moving and whether sufficient departmental priority is being given to being able to move to that. We have gone through it in detail at the justice committee but I just wanted to highlight it here again.

Deputies have talked about the cost to the State of the slopping-out cases. It was €1.5 million in compensation and another €500,000 in legal costs for in-cell sanitation for 2020 and 2019. It comes with the overcrowding problem. In the Inspector of Prisons report on Arbour Hill, one can see the effect of a doubled-up bunk being in a single cell with a toilet, with no screen between the toilet and the lower bunk. Prisoners report trying to use the toilet on the landing for each other's dignity. These are ongoing very visible and obvious problems that have to be addressed, especially where there are not separate sanitation options.

With regard to the priority areas under the regime management plan, RMP, there will be work on training as an essential service. That will be prioritised.

I want to leave prisons for a second. The money laundering directive came from the EU in 2015. Ms McPhillips said there was a difficulty between July 2017 and 2019 in the transposition of it. Will she clarify that? It was a 2015 directive. It should have been implemented by 2017.