Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

Tom McHugh worked as an assistant chief officer, ACO, in Portlaoise Prison. In October 2018, a prisoner came to the governor of that prison and said that other officers were constantly coming to his cell and, in his words, wanting him to cut up Tom HcHugh. This is just one of example of what an ACO in our prisons has experienced. He was vindicated by the Naughton report. There was a Garda investigation and a "Prime Time" investigation into this matter. I have raised this with the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, the current and previous Ministers for Justice and the Minister of State in that Department, yet, 18 months later, this public servant has still not been able to go back to work because the same conditions pertain in that prison.

We have a situation this week where four officers are being investigated for going on the beer while they were bringing a gangland criminal from prison to court. I spoke to a senior person in the Irish Prison Service, IPS, today who said the crisis is so severe in the service that someone will be found dead soon. After all that has been said to the Taoiseach and the Minister for Justice, when will this matter be dealt with?

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