Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for coming into the House to listen to what I have to say. We have all found the past 15 months to be difficult. Those who could not get out and about and older people confined to their homes found it particularly so. We have to try to imagine what it is like to be locked up in prison during that period. Every small freedom left to inmates in prison had to be curtailed. During that period, there were virtually no prison visits, and what visits that did take place within the short windows when they were allowed were very constrained in time and numbers.

I commend the Prison Service, prison staff and prisoners on the huge co-operation in ensuring there was a minimal amount of Covid in our prison system. That was a huge achievement which came at huge personal cost, particularly to prisoners, in terms of the limited opportunities they have in prison. Video visits were good, but we have all found that the Zoom meeting is no substitute for in-person meetings. We need to take a humane view of where we are now.

Belatedly, vaccines are being rolled out across the board in prisons. The process in this regard needs to be completed expeditiously. We need to look at the issue of families visits. We need to be generous in what we do and to balance the psychological rights and the general well-being of people with the other risk factors we know are there. Of course, the large number of parents of prisoners who have been vaccinated is a big help on this road. We need as expeditious a reopening of prison visits as possible. We need immediately to hear firm dates for when this is going to happen and to be generous in regard to the modalities, that is, the length of visits, the number of people who can visit and so on. I point out how successfully we reopened nursing homes to visitors a considerable time ago. The people in the nursing home cohort are generally much more vulnerable than members of the prison population.

I was disappointed to hear last week that religious services have not recommenced in prisons in the same way that they have in the outside world. I cannot understand this because religious services are important to those who wish to attend them. Obviously, because it is a prison environment, religious services must take place in a very controlled atmosphere. It is absolutely necessary that an announcement be made today that religious services will be made available once again, irrespective of faith, as they were pre Covid.

Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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The Irish Prison Service fully appreciates how important religious services and contact with family and friends are to people in custody. The Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton, wishes to assure the Deputy that the Government is committed to the return of both as soon as it considered safe to do so. The Deputy is correct to say there have been more than 15 months of difficulty. It is very difficult to be locked up, curtailed and constrained. As he noted, we need to balance the psychological rights with other rights. It is a difficult time for all.

As the Deputy may be aware, at the start of the pandemic, the Prison Service introduced a video visit system, which has allowed families to continue to support those in custody. Additional phone calls were also facilitated. I understand from the Minister of State that feedback on the use of this system has been generally positive. Nevertheless, I am pleased to inform the Deputy that the service is developing a new framework for the unwinding of prison restrictions, informed by the recent Government plan for reopening society, Resilience and Recovery: The Path Ahead. The new framework, which will be published later this month by the Prison Service, will set out a phased unwinding of the restrictions and a plan for the resumption of visits and religious services will be included. Although the unwinding of prison restrictions and the resumption of religious services and visits are priorities for the service, they are subject to a number of critical factors, including the need to maintain infection control measures, the roll-out of the prison vaccination programme for both prisoners and staff, which the Deputy mentioned, and the roll-out of the community vaccination programme.

The Deputy will appreciate that when the service is reviewing the unwinding of restrictions, it must take into account the risks of Covid transmission in congregated settings and the fact that a large cohort of those in custody and staff working in prisons have not been vaccinated. It is good to see, as was mentioned, that vaccinations are being ramped up. I hope vaccinations will begin to happen much more quickly. Revised guidelines and controls for the safe celebration of religious services have been developed and approved, and chaplains have continued to work in all prison establishments during lockdowns, providing important spiritual and pastoral support services. A date for the resumption of religious services and in-person visits will be agreed as part of the wider plan for unwinding Covid-19 restrictions in prisons later this month. When this has been finalised, it will be communicated widely.

I hope this clarifies the current circumstances for the Deputy. As he noted, prisons are facing many issues that need to be dealt with.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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On a number of fronts, I am very disappointed with the reply. As I said, the roll-out of the vaccine in prisons has been deferred, even though, as the Minister of State pointed out, they are congregated settings. The greatest risk has always been that, inadvertently, the virus would be allowed to enter prisons through people who come to prisons every day providing services, including prison staff and the people who provide all the other services within prisons, many of which were curtailed during the lockdowns. I would hope that now that the vaccines have started being rolled out, that would be seen through to completion, expeditiously, for every person in prison who wants a vaccine and also for prison staff. Anything else would be unsatisfactory.

Allowing for that, I pointed out a model whereby there was a much better practice and a much more expeditious reopening of visits, namely, that relating to nursing homes, which, in the main, involved the older cohort of society whose members are very vulnerable. We knew that statistically and still we were able to reopen visits reasonably soon after vaccination. Do not tell me, after all these months, that we are drawing up another plan. I do not want to hear about another big master plan being drawn up. It is most frustrating. Prisoners want dates on which they are going to be able to see their loved ones, and their loved ones want dates on which they can see the members of their families in prison. It should not be the case that it might happen at some point in the future on a phased basis. That is not good enough.

Similarly, there is no excuse for not facilitating religious services. We all know how safe they have been in the general populace and how controlled that environment is. There is no reason not to facilitate them. It is totally unfair to put an additional burden of caution on prisons when in society, we balance the other human needs of people in a much fairer way.

Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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I am pleased to inform the Deputy that a vaccination programme commenced on 9 June on a prison-by-prison basis, with vaccinations administered by the National Ambulance Service, supported by the Irish Prison Service healthcare teams, to all prisoners and unvaccinated staff under 40 years of age. The Minister of State understands that this has been a very difficult time for prisoners and their families. I understand the impact the loss of family contact has had on prisoners.

The Deputy mentioned nursing homes. My mother is resident in a nursing home and we have had the same issues. It has been reassuring to see them reopen but there remain difficulties in regard to visits.

The Irish Prison Service has worked tirelessly to safeguard prisoners and staff, and this continues to be the primary consideration. It must continue to ensure the prison population is protected from the virus and it is continuing to make use of alternative means of keeping prisoners and their families connected. It is the intention that the Prison Service retain the use of video visits post Covid, so families will have the option of video or physical visits, which will beneficial to families, especially those who need to travel long distances.

The Minister for Justice has asked me to reassure the Deputy that the new framework for unwinding prison restrictions, which, as I said, will be published later this month by the Irish Prison Service, will provide clarity for both prisoners and their families as to when visits and religious services can begin again.