Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)

Is the Minister living in a different world from the rest of us? Was he around during the month of August when there were dreadful happenings in our prisons? Was he even aware of the appalling overcrowding in Mountjoy or of the spate of assaults, stabbings and so on resulting from it? Was he aware a prisoner was killed in that prison largely as a result of the overcrowding because his request for help could not be accommodated?

Is the Minister not aware that a major contribution to the overcrowding problem is that he took a number of prisons and institutions out of commission without providing immediate alternative accommodation? I refer to Spike Island, the Curragh and, if I recollect correctly, Shanganagh. Does he not realise that the crisis which developed in our prisons resulted largely from overcrowding and that anybody to whom one talks in the Irish Prison Service will confirm that? During whatever time is left to him in office, does he have plans to relieve that overcrowding?

I refer to the long-term plans in regard to the Thornton Hall farm which, at €200,000 per acre, is labelled the dearest farm in Europe. Is the Minister not in any way concerned that the Comptroller and Auditor General's report is a shocking confirmation of the Minister's spendthrift approach as far as taxpayers' money is concerned? There is no planning and zoning for the farm, the agricultural value of which is probably €4 million or €5 million. The Comptroller and Auditor General gives the Minister some solace by saying it could be worth €15 million because of hope value, yet he paid €30 million for it with €15 million of taxpayers' money wasted. He is the leader of a party which, at one stage, prided itself on having some care and concern about taxpayers' money. Does he have an answer to that accusation in light of the independent criticism of the Comptroller and Auditor General?

See this speech in context