Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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I want to focus on two reports, the first being the report of the visiting committee into the Dóchas Centre. Two incidents are cited in the welfare section of that report about which I wish to ask the Minister. The first incident occurred in May of last year. The report states there was an incident where a prisoner was forcibly removed in circumstances which the visiting committee felt were in violation of the prisoner's human rights. The committee went on to state in the report that it has written several letters which have gone unanswered. Can the Minister comment on whether this incident is still under review and, if it is, when he expects an outcome to the investigation?

The second incident relates to the manner in which searches are conducted in the Dóchas Centre. As the Minister is aware, the visiting committee highlighted the manner in which the BOSS chair is used in the prison and in particular made reference to incidents where female prisoners were required to remove clothing in the presence of male officers. A media report attributed to the Minister comments that this was not the case and that male officers were not present. Regardless of whether they were present, the purpose of the BOSS chair is to be non-intrusive. The report uses words such as "unnecessary", "humiliating" and "degrading". Was a formal complaint made by any prisoner about being stripped in front of male officers? If so, when was the complaint made? Is it still under investigation? When did the Minister become aware of it?

I wish to touch briefly on a second issue.

Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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You are eating into your colleague's time.

Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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It is with regard to Cork Prison. The report mentions that a new slopping out vessel will be introduced. Will the Minister clarify what this is and how it will improve conditions?

Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)
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This is a fundamental human rights issue. The revelations in the report about practices in the women's prison are very worrying. They indicate a move away from the ethos which used to prevail of a progressive and rehabilitative outlook to one which is much more punitive. As somebody who spent a month there I am well aware of the set-up in the Dóchas Centre, and this is an extremely worrying trend which will be bad for the women and the staff.

At the root of many of the problems highlighted by the report is the issue of overcrowding. At one stage 150 women were in the facility which was designed for 85 people. This is double the number in a very small area and goes completely against the idea of respect and dignity and people having their own space.

The two cases referred to by Deputy O'Brien are appalling. It is a scandal and it made me physically sick to read the accounts because of what they revealed. The practice of searching people in front of others, be they male or female, in a gym without proper protection after having locked down the facility and maintaining searches had no purpose other than to degrade. As somebody who was strip-searched, albeit not, thankfully, in those circumstances, it is an extremely humiliating and vulnerable position for anybody to be in. I want an investigation into whether it was carried out in the manner in which it is alleged.

I am aware of reports in which the Minister disputed some of the findings. I ask that the internal report be published. There should be an independent investigation into the incidents and I agree this reinforces the need for an independent complaints mechanism to exist in prisons.

Will the Minister comment on the other issue, which is the slopping out situation? Several weeks ago in answer to a question I asked, the Minister stated 830 prisoners did not have access to 24-hour in-cell sanitation, of which 555 shared a cell. What is the timescale for addressing these issues? We need a process to investigate them publicly.

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputies O'Brien and Daly for raising these important matters and for the opportunity to speak on some of the issues which occurred in our prisons in 2010, prior to my appointment as Minister for Justice and Equality.

I published the Prison Visiting Committees' annual reports for 2010 on 18 November 2011. They highlight a number of issues relating to prison conditions and services. There is also an acknowledgement, however, of the efforts made by the Irish Prison Service management and staff to address these despite limited resources. I have absolutely no doubt that further improvements are needed. The Government remains committed to tackling overcrowding and poor physical conditions in our prisons and to eliminating, where possible, the problem of slopping out.

An extensive project to upgrade and provide in-cell sanitation to more than 100 cells in Mountjoy Prison will be completed shortly. The Inspector of Prisons, Judge Michael Reilly, recently wrote to me congratulating my Department and the Irish Prison Service on the work carried out in this regard. A similar renovation of B Division will result in 317 cells, almost 60% of the total prison, in Mountjoy Prison having in-cell sanitation by the end of next year. The completion of the Midlands Prison extension and the provision of 70 extra dormitory-style spaces in the Dóchas Centre will mean that approximately 80% of the prison estate will have in-cell sanitation by mid 2012.

I am pleased also to inform the House that the World Health Organisation has awarded a health in prisons best practice award 2011 to the recently-opened high support unit in Mountjoy Prison; and to the Red Cross project which has been rolled out in Wheatfield, Cloverhill, Shelton Abbey and Mountjoy Prisons.

I now turn to the issues with regard to the Dóchas Centre to which the Deputies made reference, both of which occurred in 2010. The House will appreciate that all prisons are subject to search procedures to maintain safety and security and there are specific rules governing the search of prisons and prisoners. Rule 6 of the Prison Rules 2007 provides that prisoners can be searched where the Governor considers, upon reasonable grounds, that such search is necessary for the purposes of ensuring that a prisoner is not in possession of a prohibited article, confiscating a prohibited article and ensuring safe and secure custody and good government of the prison. Searches conducted under this rule may consist of the removal and examination of all the prisoner's clothing and the examination of the prisoner's body in as seemly a manner as is consistent with the necessity of discovering any concealed article. A search under this rule must be undertaken by a prison officer of the same gender as the prisoner being searched.

I am informed by the Irish Prison Service that the search undertaken on 9 November 2010 prior to my appointment as Minister and commented on by the visiting committee, was a targeted search for contraband undertaken by staff from the operational support group, OSG. The OSG team comprised of staff drawn from a number of prisons. The function of the male officers was to search areas of the Dóchas Centre where female prisoners were not present including prisoners' rooms, recreational areas, visiting areas, kitchen, roof-top, workshops, the school and yard.

All prisoners were brought to the reception by Dóchas Centre staff to be searched and placed on the BOSS chair, supervised by a female OSG officer. Two female assistant chief officers attached to the Dóchas Centre supervised the operation while prisoners were coming and going from the area. I have been assured that all other staff in the area were female and attached to the Dóchas Centre. On completion of the search in the reception area, all prisoners were escorted to the gym area where they remained for the duration of the search operation, supervised by Dóchas Centre staff. No further searching of prisoners occurred while they were in the gym. At no time was the BOSS chair located in the gym.

All individual searching of the women prisoners was carried out by female staff. The visiting committee, in its report, states female offenders were required to remove their clothing, including underwear, in the presence of male officers. I have been assured by the Irish Prison Service that this did not happen. The use of the BOSS chair does not necessitate a person being stripped of their clothing. On this occasion, all prisoners placed on the chair were covered in towels to protect their modesty having had their clothing removed at an earlier search stage. The chair includes a flat metal detector which is affixed to the seat. When an inmate sits on the chair it scans the person's body cavities in a non-intrusive manner and an alarm will sound if contraband is detected.

The search teams confiscated a number of items which appeared to be non-prison issue property for a prisoner in a closed prison. Any such items were recorded and retained and given to the management of the centre on the understanding that management would determine whether such items were allowed in the prison. I understand these included scissors, screwdrivers, pliers, drugs, mobile phones, phone chargers, a syringe, a metal comb with a sharpened end, alcohol and various other contraband items.

Following a meeting with the Inspector of Prisons concerning the Dóchas Centre search operation, all staff have been circulated with guidelines on the use of the BOSS chair. The Governor has supplies of dressing gowns for all future searches and has advised that subsequent searches have not raised the same issues. As Minister, I regard it as unacceptable that towels only and not dressing gowns were made available to prisoners for the search detailed in the 2010 report of the visiting committee. It was also unacceptable that the prisoners were covered by towels only when being scanned by the BOSS chair. This should not have occurred. I am informed that procedures are now in place which respect the dignity of the prisoner and ensure that searches are conducted in a professional manner by the staff involved and I expect these procedures to be fully complied with.

As regards the release of a prisoner from the Dóchas Centre, I have been informed that the director general of the Irish Prison Service had the circumstances surrounding the release investigated. The investigation found there were some procedural failures and these issues were dealt with directly by the director general with the Governor of the Dóchas Centre to ensure that such a situation could not re-occur in future. I regard the manner in which this prisoner was treated as entirely unacceptable.

The report also made a number of recommendations on the incident and a working group has been established to oversee their implementation. This group is due to meet in the near future and consists of the Governor of the Dóchas Centre, the Governor of Mountjoy, the director of operations and representatives from both human resources and operations directorates. Arising from the work of the implementation group, it is envisaged that a comprehensive set of guidelines on releases will be issued to ensure such a situation does not occur in future.

Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister for his response and note his personal opinion on what happened in the Dóchas Centre. My second question was about in-cell sanitation facilities in Cork Prison. The report states a new slopping out vessel is being introduced. What is meant by "a new slopping out vessel" and how will it improve matters?

Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)
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I appreciate that the Minister has said some of the practices are unacceptable and that is important. However, there is a contradiction between what was stated in some of the visiting committees' reports and what was stated subsequently by the Irish Prison Service. Will the Minister, therefore, examine the idea of publishing the findings of the internal investigation into the incidents mentioned because completely different things have been said?

Overcrowding and doubling up are the cause of many problems in prisons. In-cell sanitation facilities are not an issue in the Dóchas Centre, but to promote this positively as being addressed by the provision of 70 dormitory places in the centre is not appropriate. It is a backward step. There are in-cell sanitation facilities in all rooms in the centre. However, having 70 dormitory places in the facility will be a nightmare. Having women trebling or quadrupling up in a dormitory will be a nightmare both for inmates and staff. The Minister needs to address the change of ethos in the facility.

Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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I will allow the Minister to reply briefly, although we have gone over time.

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I will try to be rapid. I visited Cork Prison where a new procedure to replace what they used to use in the context of slopping out is being put in place. I will have a detailed letter sent to Deputy O'Brien about that issue because I am conscious of the time constraints.

On the second issue, the prisons are overcrowded. Successive Governments failed adequately to address the problem. We are doing what we can within limited resources. Providing additional places in the Dóchas Centre was not of relevance to the slopping out issue; it was responding to the issue raised about overcrowding in the centre. Additional bed facilities will be provided.

It is expected that 300 additional cells will be provided in Mountjoy Prison with in-cell sanitation during the course of 2012. Given the limited resources available to me, I cannot move as quickly as I would like to, but we will do what we can to make up for the years of neglect in the prisons. We will also ensure proper and appropriate facilities that should be available in the 21st century are ultimately made available. However, we cannot redress ten years of neglect overnight.