Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The figures are not representative of all prisoners.

Some 500 prisoners are on supervised methadone maintenance programmes at any one time. These prisoners are initially tested at least twice weekly and tend to be tested in any case, even if they have been in prison for some time, at least once a week. This amounts to some 30,000 tests. Thus, the figures include the tests that take place on people who are on supervised methadone treatment.

This is not to say there is no problem. I do not wish to downplay it. However, in interpreting the figures, one must allow for these issues. There is a range of other issues involved in this testing that would not be included. There is a drug problem in many of the areas from which prisoners come. It is obvious and inevitable that this will have a knock-on effect in prisons in some cases. We must deal with that problem.

An elaborate set of security measures has been put in place to deal with the situation. The drug testing of prisoners began formally last October and it takes place in four circumstances: where requested by the courts in regard to pending proceedings; where prisoners are in drug-free units, institutions or open centres; where prisoners are participating in methadone maintenance programmes; and for management and operational reasons. These are the four categories under which prisoners are tested.

The Prison Service policy for keeping drugs out of prisons was launched just under two years ago. This involved the establishment of an external monitoring group which meets regularly to monitor implementation of that strategy. It has set out several steps that are required to get to a position where there will be no drugs in prisons, to provide adequate treatment for those addicted to drugs and to ensure that developments in prisons are linked into the community. This policy involves a multifaceted approach to tackling the problems associated with substance abuse. There is a particular focus on the need to assist prisoners who indicate a serious desire to tackle their drug problem. The methadone treatment programme is one such method of assistance.

Specific developments in the area of drug treatment include the provision of 24 addiction counsellors to cover all prisons, the contract for which was awarded to Merchant's Quay last year. Additional nurse officers have been allocated to dedicated drug treatment teams in prisons. A consultant psychiatrist in addiction and registrar of prisons have been appointed to provide counselling sessions and resources have been allocated to improve the quality, co-ordination and availability of drug treatment programmes. The previous position was that little addiction counselling was available in prisons. We were working on the basis that we had security and that there were no drugs in prisons. This was not a sustainable policy given that we all knew there were. We now have a dedicated staff of addiction counsellors, nurses and consultant psychiatrists to assist prisoners and treat those who are genuinely trying to beat the habit.

To eliminate the availability of drugs, we have introduced tough security measures. This is the other side of the issue. We must take the carrot and stick approach. Not everybody wants to accept treatment and partake in rehabilitation. Modern cameras and probe systems are being used to assist in searching for drugs. Security detectors are being used to search persons entering prisons. The security in place is the same as that employed at airports and is thus at a very high level. Previously it involved only random checks.

See this speech in context