Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

The House will be aware that the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform will meet the Prison Officers Association tomorrow to attempt yet again to inject some reasonableness into the ongoing dispute. It is now almost two years since my colleagues and I heard a briefing from the Minister regarding the difficulties in the operation of the Prison Service, especially regarding its budget. I raise this in order to ask the Leader to convey the real sense of outrage in my part of the country, which is close to Loughan House. In correspondence with me and several colleagues, the union branch secretary has pointed out that over 99% of the non-Dublin-based prison officers, which includes the staff of Loughan House and Shelton Abbey, which are the two prisons now threatened with privatisation, voted overwhelmingly for the Minister's proposals.

It is an outrage that a group of protected, privileged people in this part of Dublin — prison officers who, according to today's newspapers are operating a sick leave scheme for their own benefit — should put the lives of families in my part of the country, whose members will have to relocate or take early retirement, at risk, destroying its rural fabric along with that ofShelton Abbey. It is an outrage and a disgrace, and there is a moral imperative on the executive of the Prison Officers Association, when it meets the Minister tomorrow, to end its navel-gazing and look at the national picture, appreciating the damage it is doing to families in my part of the country.

I appreciate the Cathaoirleach's indulgence, but this is an important matter. Today's edition of the Irish Independent carries a comment by a spokesman for TV3. I ask the Leader if she might ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Noel Dempsey, when he comes before the House in the autumn regarding a proposed broadcasting Bill, once again to clarify public service broadcasting. TV3 is making an incorrect assumption. The spokesman's comment was to the effect that market forces rather than public service obligation should regulate the market.

I ask those in TV3 management who, like the prison officers, are pursuing their own agenda to look at the charter devised by the British Government for the establishment of ITV. That television station has a remit to produce programming that is concerned with providing a public service. Perhaps TV3 might strive to produce this type of programming instead of the pap it currently offers on a daily basis.