Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

On the issue of mobile phones, I have answered parliamentary questions about the use of mobile phones in prisons. It would be wrong to say that many offences are organised from within prisons but this is not to say it has not happened. I can assure the Deputy that the prison service has installed the most sophisticated X-ray equipment in every prison and it has had an effect. Many of the difficulties in the prisons which are attributed to overcrowding are in fact due to the much tighter security regime on issues such as mobile phones. I understand the mobile phone premium is very high in the prison context. The BOSS chairs have also been installed in some prisons; they are proving to be very successful and will be installed in other prisons. There is a blocking of the use of mobile phones in prisons. This project commenced at the Midlands Prison and results to date have been sufficiently positive to convince the prison service of the merit of extending the inhibition system at the Midlands Prison into the new C block-----

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