Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for those words. I am grateful to Mr. Donnellan, the head of the Irish Prison Service, for also communicating with me much of the information that the Minister of State just provided. I appreciate the progress being made in refurbishing Mountjoy Prison, in particular the ending of the appalling practice of slopping out. I am glad to hear the Minister of State confirm that there will be no reduction in the regime or sentence management arrangements that are currently in place for prisoners accommodated in the training unit. I welcome that those being moved to Mountjoy will be transferred to an enhanced area of the prison and have the same level of openness of regime and so on. However, I will keep this issue under review. The IPRT is also following it.

I would be grateful if the Minister of State could ask the Tánaiste to follow up on the more specific questions that I have raised and to respond to me on same. I will follow them up with her as well. In particular, when will the new unit that was mentioned be established and open? I refer to the more open prison unit for those transferring from the training unit. Is this closure in line with the general policy of emphasising rehabilitation as a sentencing rationale?