Michael Finucane (Fine Gael)

Yesterday, Senator O'Toole raised the issue of the murder in Mountjoy Prison. It is the second murder in the history of the prison service, the first having been committed in 2000. I want to raise an issue of concern, which is beginning to get out of control. While I am aware of the ongoing debacle between the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the Prison Officers' Association concerning overtime, at the end of the day we will end up with a defective system with very little rehabilitation in the prison service.

Spike Island prison was opened at a time when a joy-riding epidemic was rife in Dublin. Offenders were taken to Spike Island, which at one time had 102 prisoners but now that number has fallen to 40. The prisoners, many of whom are from rural locations, have been taken from Spike Island to St. Patrick's Institution in Dublin, which is a closed prison and is already congested. Prisons were originally designed to hold one prisoner per cell, which would be the proper procedure but, as a result of lack of capacity, cells are being used to hold two prisoners. Senators will have read newspaper reports of a sexual assault on a prisoner from Spike Island in one of those cells at St. Patrick's Institution. This is leading to a very difficult situation. In the past, Ministers were very loud in heralding extra prison places but those are now being scaled down. Prisoners in St. Patrick's Institution are aged from 16 to 21 and there is no rehabilitative system in place for them after they leave the closed prison system. Shanganagh Castle in Shankill, County Dublin, has been closed. It acted as a halfway house in the rehabilitation process for young offenders.

Senators will be aware of the serious situation we have had in the past in Limerick. I understand it is possible that weaponry has been smuggled into Limerick Prison where building work is being carried out. It appears that a worker in builder's uniform, not necessarily from the site, was seen on CCTV smuggling items into a workshop in the prison. An investigation is now taking place to investigate the strong suspicion that weaponry has been smuggled in to the prison. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy McDowell, must come to this House to discuss the prison system which is beginning to creak. If there is a row over a system——