Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

The Minister wasted €40 million of taxpayers' money for the Thornton Hall site.

Our prisons are dominated by gang bosses who continue to operate from behind prison bars. Mobile telephones and drugs are rampant in the prisons in spite of the Minister's repeated assurances that they would be tackled. The Minister cannot inform the House how many prisoners are on temporary release at any one time. I would have imagined there was some level of computerisation of prisoner records but obviously it cannot be done.

Will the Minister carry out an analysis over the summer of 2010 as to what persons are in prison due to immigration detention, mental health problems, non-payment of dog licences, television licences, civil debt and fines? Will he do this before he embarks on any further work on the prison building programme?

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