Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 17 January 2019

Public Accounts Committee

2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 21 - Prisons

9:00 am

Ms Caron McCaffrey:

No. We have an operational support group that provides that service. It is not based within or attached to a particular prison. It is a national unit and its role is to work with the prison to ensure that contraband within the prison is detected. It operates our security screening at front of house. It is not attached to an individual prison so its job is not seen as a reflection on an individual prison or governor. It is not the staff of that prison; it is the staff of our operational support group, which is led by a governor-----