Ms Saoirse Brady:

It does concern us. When you look at the Garda guidance, one of the things it refers to is people having access to clean, fresh air. For the majority of people, the effects of pepper spray will dissipate then. If you are talking about an overcrowded prison situation, however, and we have been to Mountjoy recently and stood in the cells - there is not room to swing a cat, a cell is the size of a car parking space and two, three and four people are in there - using pepper spray in that instance, on a landing as well where it can permeate right down through the whole section, it puts not only people in prison at risk but staff members as well. Are those vulnerabilities are taken into account?

We do not know - the legislation is very light on detail - if we are talking about every prison officer or if it will be on a landing. A superintendent has to give permission for pepper spray to be used in particular circumstances by the gardaí. We do not know the detail of it and we would be concerned about introducing any weapon into the prison at present.