Martin Conway (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Bill. I fully agree with Deputy O'Callaghan that solitary confinement should not be used anymore. It is horrendous. I sincerely hope - and I bow to Deputy Daly's knowledge on this - that it is not being used that much in this country. I would be interested to hear what the director general, Mr. Michael Donnellan has to say when he appears before the committee. I am going to make a point of being present on 8 March. It is good that there is a working group but obviously solitary confinement is being used as a sanction if there has to be a working group. Even though great work is being done in the prison service, I agree with the principal that we should legislate and ensure that if we get some director general in the future who is not as forward thinking as Michael Donnellan is, that we have the protections in place. Our responsibility as legislators is to close down that type of risk.

I salute what Deputy Daly is trying to achieve. I hope the Prison Service would see it as complementary to what they are doing.