Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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I refer to the motion on the Adjournment raised by Deputy Gormley, with which I entirely agree. Three weeks ago in the Kevin Street area, an attack occurred on a young gay man who is still in a coma and subsequent attacks on members of the gay community have occurred within that jurisdiction. It is possible that a particular group is involved in racism and attacks on the gay community. It would be worthwhile for the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to investigate the matter.

The crisis in the prison system is out of control and I cannot remember when we last had such a crisis. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform was appointed three years ago, which is the same length of time that we have had an industrial dispute concerning overtime for prison officers. Only two weeks ago the prison officers voted by two to one to reject the offer that was made, largely because of the attitude of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and his megaphone diplomacy, but also because the offer made was very inflexible, which could have been remedied if it had been presented in a proper fashion.

For the past three years the Minister has been trying to save €60 million. In that time he has created mayhem and chaos, and the Irish Prison Service is out of control as a result of his action. He has closed down three prisons, Fort Mitchel in Spike Island, the Curragh Prison and Shanganagh Castle. They have all been lying idle in mothballs for 18 months, with 300 to 400 prison spaces, which otherwise could have been used. At the same time the Minister has paid ten times the market value for land in north County Dublin for a proposed prison to replace Mountjoy.

In the meantime in his reports of this year and last year the inspector of prisons slated the quality of the prison system. He described the appalling conditions that operate in Irish prisons to the extent that he has called for the closure not only of Mountjoy, but also of Limerick and Cork prisons. The overcrowding in Cork Prison is such that it contains double the number of prisoners that it should. Every prison is overcrowded because of the Minister's policy of closing down prisons. He now proposes going a step further to punish prison officers for rejecting his inflexible offer and his megaphone diplomacy by privatising the prison escort service, as proposed in a Bill just published. This is outrageous behaviour. He now proposes to close down two more prisons, Shelton Abbey and Loughan House, and turn them into private institutions requiring more people to be recruited and paid.

The Minister is presiding over a Prison Service that is out of control. His ego has decided that city hall will not be defeated, which is his attitude to prison staff. This represents a red rag to a bull. Instead of engaging in diplomacy in industrial relations he is using confrontation. The Minister should get a grip of himself and recognise that he is more than half way through his term in office. Throughout those three years we have had a crisis in the prison service. We again have a revolving door system, with prisoners being released early because of lack of places for them. Prison services such as education cannot proceed because of doubling up in most cells. This means that we have a worse prison service than we had in the last century, which is reflected in the recently published report of the inspector of prisons, Dermot Kinlen.

While I hope I will not need to raise this issue again, I fear I will need to do so. I would not be surprised if by the time the Government reaches the end of its term of office, in addition to the three prisons the Minister has already closed down and the two he is about to close, one or two more are closed down. He frequently claims to be doing wonderful things to modernise the Prison Service when in reality he is putting it back to the Stone Age.

Ivor Callely (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising the issue and I will ask my colleague, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy McDowell, to take on board his concern regarding attacks on members of the gay community and pursue the matter with his officials.

The Deputy referred to a three-year crisis in the prison system. There has been no three-year crisis in the Prison Service. Indeed, since taking office, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy McDowell, has overseen significant positive developments in it. New prison accommodation has been completed in Limerick and work is under way at Portlaoise. Despite Deputy Costello's objection, the Minister is going ahead with his project to replace Mountjoy Prison with a new and modern prison complex in north County Dublin. Deputy Costello's preference to have the current Mountjoy Prison refurbished would cost in the region of €418 million.

Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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He has paid that ten times over already.

Rory O'Hanlon (Cavan-Monaghan, Ceann Comhairle)
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Allow the Minister of State to continue. His time is limited.

Ivor Callely (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)
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A site for a new prison campus to replace the Mountjoy complex has been purchased. Deputy McDowell is also planning to build a new southern prison at Spike Island to replace the antiquated Cork Prison. Furthermore, work is under way to complete the introduction of humane special observation cells in all prisons, doing away with the former practice of distressed prisoners being kept in padded cells. The Minister will publish new prison rules in the coming weeks which will allow for mandatory drug testing and the enforcement of drug-free prisons.

Furthermore, there is no question of the Minister having any personal dispute with prison officers. The Minister, Deputy McDowell, and I have the height of admiration and respect for the dedication and commitment of prison officers in the delivery of their very challenging duties. It has long been recognised that the huge levels of expenditure on overtime in prisons are not sustainable and must be reduced. Unfortunately, when the Labour Party was last in government, it did absolutely nothing to tackle this problem, which diverts much-needed funds from important projects such as prisoner rehabilitation programmes and an accelerated prisons building programme.

Since the Minister took office in 2002, he has allowed ample space and time for a mutually acceptable negotiated settlement to be reached between the Irish Prison Service and the Prison Officers Association. Following the rejection of the earlier offer in October 2003, he agreed to use the full range of industrial relations machinery available in the State, including the conciliation services of the Labour Relations Commission and the ultimate arbitration facilities of the Civil Service Arbitration Board. That process continued over a 16-month period and involved long and difficult negotiations, leading to a substantial arbitration award recommendation. The deal included an 8% pensionable arbitration allowance and the payment of a lump sum of €13,750.

Unfortunately, the members of the Prison Officers Association did not follow the recommendation of their own executive and decided to reject the proposal for organisational change in the Prison Service. It must be clearly understood that no Minister can be in the business of renegotiating a proposal for organisational change which has already been arbitrated upon by the Civil Service Arbitration Board — perhaps Deputy Costello thinks that he should.

Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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He could have made it far more flexible.

Rory O'Hanlon (Cavan-Monaghan, Ceann Comhairle)
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Deputy, please allow the Minister of State to continue.

Ivor Callely (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)
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I gather that he would not do so either. Anyone who believes that there is another forum beyond the Civil Service Arbitration Board where something extra may be gained is not living in the real world. We cannot compromise the integrity of the whole industrial relations process, which has served us so well and must continue to serve our public services in future. As the Deputy knows, the arbitration process is the end of the line.

The Minister has never made a secret of the consequences of failure to reach an agreement, and he was left with no option but to proceed immediately with the agenda approved by the Government to ensure that the Prison Service is run as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible. That agenda is now in place and steps to implement it are under way.

Both the Curragh and Fort Mitchel places of detention are closed and will not reopen.

Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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That is a disgrace.

Ivor Callely (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)
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The staff that remained in those institutions following their mothballing last year have been notified of their transfer to other institutions and arrangements are well advanced for the permanent redeployment of all staff temporarily reassigned from the Curragh and Fort Mitchel.

Rory O'Hanlon (Cavan-Monaghan, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Minister's time is concluded.

Ivor Callely (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)
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The two Prison Service open centres at Loughan House and Shelton Abbey will close, one in October and the other in November 2005. It is important to record that the Minister intends to replace them with open centres for persons on temporary or early release from prison, and they will be managed and operated outside the Irish Prison Service. He plans to expand the new open centres by up to 50%. Staff serving in those institutions will be redeployed permanently at that time to other institutions.

As I am out of time, might the rest of my speech be recorded in the Official Report?

Rory O'Hanlon (Cavan-Monaghan, Ceann Comhairle)
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No, that is possible only with questions, not matters on the Adjournment.

Ivor Callely (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)
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In that case, I will be happy to provide more detail to Deputy Costello should he so wish.