Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

I intend no reflection on the Minister of State, Deputy Tim O'Malley, but I would have liked to see the Minister, Deputy McDowell, present. I do not believe the latter has graced the floor of the House on many occasions since entering office to answer matters raised on the Adjournment. This could have been his first opportunity to explain why he has just spent €30 million on a greenfield site in north County Dublin and why he is closing the prison where over €30 million was spent on the women's section not so long ago; €12 million was spent on the juvenile prison, St. Patrick's Institution, only two years ago; and where there is a fine training unit in operation. It would also be an opportunity for the Minister to explain to the local population in north Dublin why he arrived like some thief in the night without any consultation and bought the land, behind their backs. Any decent Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform should not be afraid to come forward to justify his actions. However, the Minister is hiding behind his PR gurus, who will issue statements on his behalf. We saw the other day just how much is being spent on branding the Minister in public relations. We need a straightforward explanation and the Minister is not prepared to give it on the floor of the House. He has no respect for the House, as such.

There is no doubt the Minister and all of us are appalled at the conditions in Mountjoy. However, these conditions have existed for decades. The Minister has decided to do something about it because he had no choice. The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture has condemned conditions in Mountjoy. The Government's Inspector of Prisons and Places of Detention, Mr. Justice Dermot Kinlen, has on two occasions called for the closure of Mountjoy in two annual reports, as well as Cork and Limerick jails. The second report has been with the Minister for many months without it being published because of some legal conundrum he was supposed to have resolved long ago and also because a solicitor in Limerick has approximately 800 prisoners and ex-prisoners as clients who are appealing to the European Court of Human Rights over disgraceful conditions as regards slopping out in prisons.

Has the Minister made the right decision in his response? I do not believe he has. In the first instance one has to think about the families of the offenders. The offenders are being punished and their families should not be. There are no public transport facilities anywhere near the new site that has been purchased.

A new women's prison has been constructed which is working excellently and is a model in that respect. It is within the Mountjoy complex and the training unit is there. At the same time the Minister has closed three other prisons which were operating satisfactorily, Shanganagh Castle, the Curragh and Spike Island. He closed them for the most meaningless of reasons, because he was engaged in an industrial relations row about overtime with prison officers. Instead of engaging in proper industrial relations, he went off in a huff and closed the prisons, saying in effect, "You have no prisons now, so you are going to have to come to heel". This is no way for a Minister to behave. The capacity for approximately 300 prisoners is ready and waiting. There is no reason why St. Patrick's Institution for juveniles could not be transferred and the entirety of it refurbished. There is no reason why the adult wing in Mountjoy could not be transferred for extra capacity when St. Patrick's is finished. Again, it could be adequately completed as should have been done many years ago, but the Minister decided differently. He decided on a greenfield site in a public private partnership.

We have no penal policy. We have no indication of alternatives to prison. We have seen the previous Minister increase prison capacity from 2,000 to 3,000. We have seen this Minister increase it to 3,200 and now he proposes to increase it to 4,500. At the same time he claims that crime is going down all the time. There is something wrong, some contradiction and I would be delighted to hear a satisfactory answer to that conundrum.

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