Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)

My recollection is that the Bill providing for the Garda Ombudsman Commission allows staff to be seconded from the Garda Síochána. That has the potential to severely compromise it in carrying out its duties. I accept the inspector of prisons is independent but his report goes to the Minister. Its publication has been delayed by the Minister's Department, so it is not truly independent. I accept that the tone and tenor of some of the remarks in his reports would suggest he is completely independent but I wonder what he would say if he was completely independent given that he described the Minister as outrageous and with Fascist tendencies in his reports which were scrutinised by the Minister before publication.

To be deadly serious, under the Minister's watch, prison programmes, such as the CONNECT programme and programmes which address recidivism, illiteracy and addiction, have been severely cut. Can the Minister give a commitment that a prisons inspectorate will be completely independent, will be able to publish its own reports and will be able to reveal what actually goes on inside our prisons without having to have its reports vetted by the Minister prior to publication?

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