Mr. Pat Doherty, MP:

I welcome Ms Pauline McCabe and Mr. George Richardson and thank Ms McCabe for her very clear presentation. We have the Good Friday Agreement and we have had St. Andrews Agreement and the Hillsborough Agreement and the net result is that all other aspects of the criminal justice system have been reformed with the exception of the prison service. Ms McCabe said in her report that her office is not yet on a statutory footing, that there is no implementation plan and that 90% of her recommendations are accepted. I would like to refer to the 10% and the quality of those that are not accepted. More than 70% of the prisoners have more than one mental health problem. How does that affect their ability to even understand or know how to relate to Ms McCabe's office?

I would like Ms McCabe to comment on what Maureen said about parole commissioners. The case of Marian Price is under current review but it seems to be under review for a very long time. She is being held in Belfast City Hospital in a secure wing in isolation. She gets very little exercise and then it is after 12 o'clock at night. Martin Corey is being held on the basis of closed evidence that nobody has any notion what it is about. We would need, in the atmosphere of the Good Friday Agreement, to have that all flushed out. I ask Ms McCabe to comment on that, particularly around the points of resistance in the system for the reform of the prison service.