Lisa McDonald (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to discuss this Bill. When discussing the motion on the prison, I said a modern stand-alone prison is badly needed in the State. It should be provided on a secure site where prisoners can feel safe. This may sound like an oxymoron but it should be considered given the Dickensian conditions in Mountjoy Prison, from which prisoners sometimes emerge worse than they were before going in. District Court judges and other members of the Judiciary throughout the country are reluctant to impose custodial sentences because of the conditions in Mountjoy, despite the fact that they are needed in many cases. Therefore, the new prison needs to be constructed and put into operation as soon as possible. Thus, we can concentrate on the issues the Irish Prison Service will be dealing with, including education, training and rehabilitation.

We must not forget the need to rehabilitate prisoners so they can re-enter society because they are sometimes homeless on leaving prison and thus end up being put back in. This cycle needs to be broken. With new modern facilities such as those proposed for Thornton Hall, we will be in a position to deliver in this regard and bring our penal code into line with international best practice.

When discussing the motion on the prison, Senator O'Toole referred to its name. Have there been any developments in this regard? We should name the prison as soon as possible so it will not be referred to as "Thornton Hall Prison" by the media.

I welcome the fact that the prison will have a library, health care room and gymnasium. These will give prisoners something to do, improve their health and assist in readmitting them to society. I hope it will prevent them from getting involved in further crime.

That prisoners will be housed in separate rooms is very important. As we know from Mountjoy Prison, communication and overcrowding among prisoners can lead to trouble. The Irish Prison Service deserves our support in implementing the penal code. To date, we have not been able to operate according to best practice. The facilities and physical layout of the proposed prison, with its eight blocks, mean it will be easier to prevent the use of illegal mobile phones and drugs. The practices that obtain at present must not be allowed in the new purpose-built prison.

I was very interested to hear Mountjoy Prison was built to facilitate the short-term housing of convicts being sent to Tasmania. I did not realise this. It explains part of the problem we have been having with the prison.

Our current system is ineffectual and the new prison is badly needed. I welcome the fact that the Department is to consider immediately the Oberstown project for minors in Lusk. Minors will be housed temporarily in Thornton Hall, which I do not support, but, when the new project is completed, as outlined in the speech of the Minister of State, it will address people's concerns.

At present, many of those who argue not to have a larger prison claim we are failing to consider other aspects of penal policy, including rehabilitation, community sentencing and the paying of fines. However, we live in a society in which people can and do commit serious crimes. The number of serious crimes is rising and we therefore need more prison spaces.

Our sentencing policy cannot be implemented fully at present and we consequently need more prison spaces so prisoners can be incarcerated for the full terms to which they are sentenced. Our next task should be to consider sentencing and the new facility will assist us in doing so, such that society will be safer and citizens will have more respect for the Judiciary and not commit crimes.