Ms Maureen Mulligan:

That is something we would negotiate. In the United Kingdom they initiated it with life sentence prisoners. I spent two years working with them in Wormwood Scrubs and some of them had given up the will to live. My initial training was with the prison staff looking at suicide prevention measures for prisoners who had given up, as they had nothing to look forward to. As the system was tougher than the regime here, some of them had given up and did not want to live. The prison service was looking at a suicide prevention option for them and it developed from there. In the Irish regime it would be a matter of negotiation as to where was the greatest need. It needs to be available to whomever needs it most, but we would discuss the pilot project with the prison service.

I was contacted last week by a father who had a son out of control and I told him to call the Garda. For some of them, the first step in the recovery option is when they are incarcerated. They need that regime to start with. This young man could not be handled in the community. That is why it works so well in the prisons in the United Kingdom. The prison staff came on board and asked to us to see different prisoners. The programme then spread throughout the system. Prisoners were given an option and it was phenomenal in Coldingley prison. The governor was receiving requests for prisoners to be transferred there to be permitted to undertake the programme. Our team comprises osteopaths, acupuncturists and so on. For many prisoners, drugs are not the answer to the problems of drug addiction. We were the start of an option that was completely drug free.