Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I add my voice to that of Senators Norris and Bradford. It is seldom we arrange to set up a selection committee in this House. It would be disappointing if that proposal simply disappeared and failed to appear on the Order Paper. The proposal is that the selection committee should appear on the Order Paper. It has not done so, therefore I support the amendment proposed by Senators Norris and Bradford.

Will the Leader consider asking the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to come into this House to debate a prison-related issue? It is approximately six months since he was in the House dealing with the Prisons Bill. On that occasion he spent considerable time here and explained how he was proceeding. The main objective of that legislation was to outsource the transporting of prisoners. That is a valid and sensible idea.

However, some figures published in Britain yesterday — a similar position is confirmed by the figures in Ireland — suggest that two out of every three young prisoners reoffend and find themselves back in prison and one out of every two adult male prisoners in Britain also reoffend and end up back in prison. The figures in Ireland are somewhat similar.

With the exception of the two open prisons, prisoners are inactive for 16 to 17 hours per day. This leads to the development of the position I outlined in Britain characterised by the figures published yesterday. The Minister should come into the House and inform us about what he is doing in this regard and what progress is being made. He was very good when he was here six months ago. I would like to know what is happening in our prisons because this issue challenges us. If two out of every three pupils in a school failed to learn how to read and write and if one out of every two patients in a hospital died, there would be an outcry, but that is what is happening in our prisons. We need a debate on this matter.