Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 30.

In page 24, lines 9 to 12, to delete all words from and including "the" where it secondly occurs in line 9 down to and including "appropriate." in line 12 and substitute the following:

"any one or more of the following persons, as the Inspector considers appropriate:

(i) the governor of the prison concerned;

(ii) the Director-General of the Prison Service; or

(iii) the Minister.".

The Minister indicated on Committee Stage that he would consider this amendment. As it is largely technical in nature and improves the readability of the Bill, I ask him to accept it. Notwithstanding his prolonged protestations on Committee Stage, I also ask the Minister to accept amendment No. 32 which proposes to increase and improve the accountability of the Government before the Houses of the Oireachtas.

On amendment No. 33, one of the criticisms laid against the Bill by experts on penal matters is that it does not provide for an independent prisons ombudsman whose function would be to investigate individual complaints made by prisoners. It is not necessary to fetter the Inspector of Prisons and Places of Detention in the manner prescribed in the Bill. Section 31(6) effectively prevents the inspector from investigating a complaint from an individual prisoner. While I do not suggest that responding to every complaint should be one of the inspector's functions, the purpose of the amendment is to ensure the inspector's hands are not tied in any way. The amendment provides that he or she could examine issues raised by a prisoner and hence fulfil one of the inspector's important functions. Amendment No. 34 creates a specific offence of failing to co-operate with the inspector and, as such, provides important support for his or her work.

Amendment No. 36 addresses an issue I have raised on several occasions during debates on the Bill. It is important to provide statutory timescales within which the Minister must lay documents before the Houses. Without such a provision, it is, as we have seen, too easy and convenient to ignore the Oireachtas and delay publication of a document indefinitely or publish such documents at a time which precludes a debate being held in the House. While I understand the reasons the Minister set out on Committee Stage in respect of the delay in publishing the most recent report of the Inspector of Prisons and Places of Detention, nevertheless the Bill should stipulate a timescale for the publication of reports.