Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this issue once again. There is a crisis in Mountjoy Prison. In recent weeks the governor of Mountjoy men's prison has announced his retirement while the governor of the women's prison has resigned. Both cited appalling conditions at the prison and the fact that they were being constantly undermined in their attempts to run effective prisons. In April Mr. John Lonergan announced his decision to retire as governor after 42 years in the Prison Service. He said his concerns about the prison had been totally ignored over the years and his autonomy as governor had been constantly reduced to the point where governors have almost no discretion regarding how prisons operate.

A week later Ms Kathleen McMahon pointed to significant overcrowding problems and the ridiculous and disgraceful practice of incarcerating women for failing to keep up with loan repayments. She noted that Dóchas prison was designed to hold 85 inmates but at the time of her statement had 130 women in the prison. In Mountjoy, a prison designed for 489 prisoners, the average number of prisoners behind bars this year is 630. Those concerns have been echoed by an outgoing member of the Mountjoy Prison visiting committee, Mr. Paul McKay, and others.

The periodic flare up of violence in Mountjoy is a reminder of the constant low level violence and threat of violence with which inmates and staff contend on a daily basis. Non-gangland prisoners are being mercilessly targeted by gang members. This is evident in published photos, circulated via mobile phones, of an "ordinary" prisoner stripped naked, beaten and tied up within the four walls of the prison. Images have also been circulated of gang members brandishing improvised weapons including "shanks" - knives made from box cutter blades. There is allegedly a constant stream of prisoners being taken to the accident and emergency unit in the Mater Hospital for treatment for injuries arising from beatings, stabbings and slashings.

The Prison Officers Association claims that staff members are barely able to cope with the levels of violence and intimidation, and are suffering from stress. A moratorium on recruitment and a reduction in overtime is making life for the prison staff in Mountjoy almost impossible. The Council of Europe Anti-Torture Committee has described conditions in Mountjoy as "inhumane and degrading". That label should be a source of shame and disgust to a government but this Government and the Minister for Justice and Law Reform are clearly without any moral compass.

A drug culture dominates and the prison chaplains have repeatedly warned that those who enter prison clean are likely to leave with a drug problem. Last month, it was reported that the Inspector of Prisons discovered that 26% of the prison population, 825 prisoners, being locked down because they or prison staff believed their lives were in danger. They are, effectively, in prisons within the prison system. This record number of inmates locked away for 23 hours a day, 365 days a year, has come about as a result of the entry into the prison system of the increasingly brutal feuding between large drug gangs on the outside.

Obviously, prison is where criminal gangsters belong, but is it the place where fine defaulters belong? Is it the place where petty criminals belong? Would minor offences not be better dealt with via the sanction of community service, thereby freeing up vital prison spaces? Kathleen McMahon claimed in her resignation statement that women were being locked up for inability to pay debts. In a reply to a parliamentary question on 13 May, I was informed that the number of committals to prison for failing to pay fines is 1,431 up to and including 31 March 2010. How can the Minister stand over this system?

The expensive fairytale of Thornton Hall solving all the problems clearly lies far into the future. I want the Minister to give me a date because the date I am hearing is not sooner than 2016. I believe it is in the constituency of the Acting Chairman, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and he has an interest. What is to happen in the meantime? Will we see ongoing violence, drug addiction, intimidation, overcrowding and inhumane and degrading treatment? Is this situation tenable because it may someday in the distant future be improved? It is not tenable. There are steps that can be taken immediately to improve matters, foremost among them being a change in practice to ensure that petty criminals are given community sanctions rather than being incarcerated in overcrowded jails. I have raised this matter before, raise it today and will continue to raise it until matters are improved.

See this speech in context