Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I do not intend to avail of the powers provided under this section as long as the prison service, through its own internal escort service, provides a reasonably economic means of transporting prisoners to and from other places. If a successor of mine were in a position where they had to do that due to an incapacity on the part of the prison service to provide that service, the question of entering into a contract would arise. It would not be reasonable to get the prior agreement of the Oireachtas because if, for whatever reason, the service was unavailable, there would be a requirement to come back to the Oireachtas. For instance, if a service was in existence and the company went bust, to say nothing could happen until the Oireachtas met might be very inconvenient and the Senators might be disinclined to be summoned back from their summer holidays to study a new contract or whatever. I do not wish to be flippant but it is for the Government of the day to approve contracts. I assure this House and the public, however, that as far as I am concerned this is very much a second best option. It is only in the Bill to ensure that in respect of the agreement I have with the public servants in the prison system, they will arrange matters to ensure an economical service within the system to the State will be upheld.

It is my intent to increase the number of sniffer dogs in the prison service because it is important that they should be available frequently on a random basis. We cannot have a situation where there is only one dog in the country and wherever that dog is located, everybody can be relatively sure no other dog will perform similar services. Sniffer dogs are hugely beneficial adjuncts to security services in a range of situations and it is my intention to ensure they are within the service and that they are looked after by officers of the service. Obviously they have to be trained by outside experts. The training of them is not a matter for the service but in the long term I do not want them to have to have handlers from outside the service. In a reasonable prison situation, if dogs are brought into cells to sniff out concealed drugs and the like, that is work prison officers should be doing. It should not require the retention of independent contractors to achieve that type of searching facility. As for horses, there is nothing I can say.