David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will bring these matters to the attention of the Minister and assure the Deputy that he will treat them as seriously as he is treating the report he received from the Inspector of Prisons recently. He intends to publish that report as soon as possible.

I am advised that there are policies and processes in place to deal with many of the issues raised by the Deputy. The financial procedures in place in the Irish Prison Service and the Department are comprehensive and deal with the assignment of responsibility, accountability, reporting arrangements, audits, the safeguarding of assets, risk and cost control.

In respect of protected disclosures, the policies and procedures in place are designed to ensure that all such disclosures will be subject to an appropriate investigation by independent external investigators. The Irish Prison Service further commits that any resulting actions arising from investigations will be undertaken as soon as possible in the circumstances. Further, as part of its commitment to protecting workers who make protected disclosures, the Irish Prison Service has signed and complies with the integrity at work pledge to ensure that workers reporting wrongdoing will not face penalisation and that appropriate action will be taken in response to protected disclosures.

If the Deputy has any evidence of a crime being committed or of serious wrongdoing, he should consider bringing this to the attention of the relevant authority and the Garda as soon as possible.

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