Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for accepting this important issue for discussion. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Stanton, for being here. With no disrespect to him, I am disappointed the senior Minister could not be available given the issues at stake. Through my work in the Committee of Public Accounts since last January questioning and researching for the questioning of the Irish Prison Service and the Department of Justice and Equality, tens of prison officers and other prison staff from all over the country have come to me unsolicited to share their concerns about what is going on within the Prison Service.

I put on record, very clearly, that the vast majority of prison staff work extremely hard in a very difficult and challenging environment. They deserve our respect and support, including proper remuneration, equipment, terms and conditions and facilities. Despite utterances by the prison officers' union, those facilities should include the availability of hot meals and tuck shop facilities while on duty.

Sadly, a small number of prison staff, at various levels, including senior ranks, are supporting, nurturing and facilitating a culture of omerta, whereby what goes on in the prison and Prison Service stays in the Prison Service - "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours". Through the evidence alleged to me - and to the Government through various protected disclosures, media reports and the Gilheaney report, which it has been sitting on for three months without publishing - it is clear that in some instances there is a parallel investigative, judicial and prosecution system within individual prisons and the Irish Prison Service. I am sure the Minister of State will agree, and certainly the Minister for Justice and Equality who is a solicitor in private life would agree, that we cannot allow this to continue.

I have met tens of prison officers over the past few months and have received reports from them that victims of sexual harassment and sexual assault have been bought off and pressurised to accept money instead of going through due process with An Garda Síochána. It has been alleged to me, and proof provided, that career blocking and spurious transfers have taken place against those who do not play ball and do not row in with the few who pursue and nurture corrupt procedures and systems. On the misappropriation of State funds: it is alleged a governor channelling funds and materials owned by the State to the governor's favourite sporting clubs, organisations and charities. Even - listen to this one Minister - having their homes decked out with prison materials from the prison workshop, put in by staff on duty for the Prison Service at the behest of the governor in question. A store's employee in another prison selling prison uniforms and equipment online when found out was allowed to resign without any recourse to the rigours of the law and without any recovery to the State. Mess committee and tuck shop profits were flagrantly used for sporting trips abroad, including a significant trip to Savannah and New York, costing tens of thousands of euro, to the benefit of just a few at the expense of many.

In terms of illegal surveillance, I have evidence, as does the Government and it is sitting on it, that covert cameras were put in place to monitor prison officers in their workplace who were not implicated in or suspected of any wrongdoing. Covert listening devices were placed in visiting boxes, listening to solicitors and their clients, betraying the age-old law that we must respect this confidentiality. Covert cameras were placed in Portlaoise Hospital to monitor prison staff but, of course, also the poor Joe Soaps who went in there to have their medical issues dealt with. Surveillance of prison staff outside the prison environment: a company, AOC Security Solutions, was paid €28,500 by the State, and that is all we know about, to carry out this work. It has been alleged to me that it was provided with false identification to get into prison and install equipment to spy on hard-working prison staff, and we are paying for it.

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