Ivana Bacik (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State and the opportunity to speak on this issue. I have had a long-standing interest in prison reform and have long been a member of the Irish Penal Reform Trust. I am very familiar with the inside of many of the State's prisons, happily not as a prisoner but as a defence lawyer and criminologist. I spent time touring the inside of Mountjoy Prison, the Dóchas Centre and other prisons. I have been in the cells in Mountjoy Prison and the room in the Dóchas Centre. I have some familiarity with the system as a consequence.

We must all welcome that there will be a significant improvement in conditions for male prisoners when they move from Mountjoy Prison to the new prison. Nobody can stand over the appalling conditions male prisoners are currently subjected to in Mountjoy Prison, where they are still, in 2008, slopping out. This involves urinating and defecating into buckets. Allowing this is an appalling practice. The Government should be very ashamed that, after 11 years in power, there is still no in-cell sanitation for the majority of prisoners in Mountjoy.

I hope there will be enhanced rehabilitation facilities in the new prison. It is welcome to hear the Minister of State speak in favour of greater rehabilitation facilities, but this does not ring true when one considers the quiet winding down of the CONNECT project, an innovative rehabilitation programme to which money had been allocated. However, it is apparent that it has not been spent and the project is no longer up and running. What is the Minister of State's proposal in regard to the project?

While it is to be hoped that conditions will improve when the new prison is built, it is regrettable that there will be an increase in both the size and capacity of the prison by comparison with Mountjoy Prison. It is to be regretted that what should be an urban or city-centre prison is moving to a greenfield site. We have debated this but I must reiterate my concerns in this regard.

I am particularly concerned about the capacity of the prison. The Minister of State said there will be a total of 1,400 prisoners on the site but the motion refers to 2,200. We therefore require clarification.