Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Everybody in the House agrees that we are all on the same wavelength when it comes to bringing an end to violence; nobody wants to see a return to violence. The Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade is aware that an Oireachtas group has been paying frequent visits to prisoners in Northern Ireland. I stress again that our focus with the prisoners is on their human rights and also on ensuring there is no threat, undermining or destabilising of the peace process in Northern Ireland. We paid our most recent visit last Monday week and the four of us who were there emerged feeling extremely alarmed and disturbed by what we had heard from both republican and loyalist prisoners on continuing issues that were not being addressed. A dirty process ended almost four years ago, at the end of which agreements were reached. An ombudsman’s report was carried out and various forum meetings took place in the prison. The group from the Oireachtas has met the Minister of Justice, Mr. Ford, on several occasions. We also met the Secretary of State and officials in the Northern Ireland Office. All of us agree that these issues remain unaddressed. I refer to controlled movement, strip searching and access to education. Prisoners with political affiliations who should not be there are in a care and supervision unit, CSU, in the prison. It is like a punishment block and operates on a 23 hour lock-down basis. One particular prisoner received an indeterminate five year custodial sentence because his fingerprint was found on a plastic bag containing a pipe bomb. I am not in favour of pipe bombs, but the evidence was circumstantial. Other prisoners guilty of pipe bomb explosions received lesser sentences, which suggests something is wrong in the North. These serious issues are not being addressed.

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