Máire Hoctor (Tipperary North, Fianna Fail)

Táim an-bhuíoch den Leas-Cheann Comhairle as ucht an seans a thabhairt dom labhairt ar an ábhar tábhachtach seo.

As a member of the Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights, I am by now well known as a vehement promoter of restorative justice, whereby offenders, particularly first-time offenders, are given the chance to make amends to their local community. As a founding member of the Nenagh community reparation project, I am very much in favour of keeping people out of prison and giving community members every chance to make amends to those offended against and better their lives outside a prison environment. However, one lives in the real world and knows it is not always possible. Unfortunately, in a prison environment people are removed from society in order to protect it from them. Ever greater efforts are made to help people by rehabilitating them on the inside, training them, upgrading their skills, and sometimes helping them become literate or improve their literacy skills. In some way, they must be prepared for a return to society and have as fulfilled a life as possible.

It is unfortunate that the issue of the Thornton site has developed in this way, but I hope that it is short-lived. Those of us who have visited Mountjoy agree that conditions there are not acceptable and have not been for a long time. There must be few prisons in the world by this stage where the practice of "slopping out" continues. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy McDowell, is to be commended on his efforts to address this. It is easy to talk about it, but to grasp the nettle and do something about it is another matter. The Minister is to be highly commended on his work, not only in Dublin but in areas such as Cork, where improvements are being made. I would be among the first to say that current psychiatric services in prisons are anything but adequate. Space and a proper environment for the training of prisoners willing to participate must be provided.

I am always suspicious of groups engaging with children and bringing them into protest movements. Yesterday I saw the protest outside the gates of Leinster House. I wonder why people take children out of school to participate in protests. In a democracy, they are more than entitled to do so, but children have no part in protests of any kind. Why they should engage children in this kind of protest is beyond me. We accept that prisons are needed. If Portlaoise were told tomorrow that its prison would close, there would be another protest, since it supports the local economy and provides jobs. The new prison will also, most importantly, provide proper state-of-the-art facilities, and that is only right.

In many Departments, we have been playing "catch up" relative to other European countries, where proper facilities in schools, prisons and elsewhere are already in place. This is a very serious attempt by the Minister to consider this most suitable site. One would think the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy McDowell, made this decision alone. However, we know the committee was involved. When the announcement was made, local residents were asked to meet the director general and refused. Subsequently, they met him, which was welcome. Let us remind people that the planning process will enable the needs of members of the public and local residents to be taken into account in the development of the prison, and rightly so.

I commend the Minister on this. We have heard people say before that money has been wasted. The Opposition has absolutely no case whatsoever. I am still trying to remember whether it made any attempts at all to expand or improve facilities at Mountjoy. I welcome the opportunity to discuss this, and I wish we had more time to debate it more thoroughly. I commend the Minister once more on his initiative in this regard and also on his justified criticism of RTE and the economical relationship with the truth shown by its broadcasters, at which we are all disappointed.

See this speech in context