Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

We have also discussed prisoner issues with Theresa Villiers and David Ford through the ad hoc group mentioned by Deputy Wallace. The point we want to emphasise is that it does not seem to us that there is sufficient awareness of the serious potential of this issue to destabilise the situation. The Minister of State is aware there was a dirty protest for a year and a half which ended on an understanding that certain improvements would be made. Tragically, the ending of that protest coincided with the appalling murder of David Black. Our information is that the situation inside that prison at the moment is very unstable because the conditions of the ending of that protest have not been seen to be met in terms of strip searching and agreements on movement on landings, where there was an understanding this would be freed up. These have not been dealt with and there is a serious problem which I believe our Government must emphasise.

The last point is the condition of prisoners on release. People like Martin Corey and Marian Price are old enough and both are quite sick. Some others were asked to wear an electronic tag, which is completely inappropriate, in my opinion. There is a list of people with whom they cannot associate. In one ridiculous scenario, Marian Price was in a supermarket and an old associate came up, and she had to say: "Get away. If I am seen talking to you, I am in breach of the conditions of my release." Our Government must stress the importance of these issues, including for human rights reasons.

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