Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)

A few weeks back, newspapers revealed that the Irish Prison Service paid almost €25,000 of taxpayers' money for a single podcast by The 2 Johnnies. There are also reports of other podcasters receiving payments of almost €100,000. At the same time, we see extraordinary capital spending on ten single modular homes at Shelton Abbey at a cost of €640,000 each. At Loughan House in Cavan, units housing just one prisoner each are being built on publicly owned land at a unit cost of €520,000. Coincidentally, we see that senior IPS executives travelled to Kentucky the very same week the Kentucky Derby was being held. Executives also travelled to Perth, Kraków and other expensive destinations. In light of this picture of the system, it seems we need the Comptroller and Auditor General to undertake a full forensic audit of these expenditures to restore accountability and public trust in the Irish prison system. Does the Tánaiste agree?

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