Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach for inviting His Excellency, the ambassador of the Netherlands, to the Chamber today. It was fitting and I thank the Cathaoirleach for his remarks to the ambassador, which I clearly enjoyed. It is a wonderful country. As I was listening, I remembered being in the Netherlands picking bulbs at the age of 16 or 17. Many of us went there to pick bulbs. It was a good opportunity for students from Ireland. It is a wonderful country and I am delighted that the Cathaoirleach invited the ambassador and said a few words to him.

I would like to inform the House that Senator Tom Clonan has joined the Seanad Independent Group. We look forward to working with him, as I know everyone in this House does. I want to share that with the House. I also flag that the Merchant Shipping (Investigation of Marine Casualties) (Amendment) Bill 2021 is scheduled for this afternoon. There are only two amendments, in my name and that of Senator David Norris. I thought there might have been more, but that is the nature of this business, and I hope we will have some engagement. It is a huge issue. We are an island and we are surrounded by marine casualties. I will not rehearse all that I will say later, but hopefully some people will be in the House. There are two amendments and we will see how they go.

My main focus today is the Irish Prison Officers Association's annual meeting in Sligo, which the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, is due to address. I understand she will outline the Government's vision and plan for the Irish Prison Service to become an independent State agency. I have major concerns about that. I saw some of the detail yesterday. The Irish prison system is unique. Today, we will hear prison officers tell the conference of overcrowding, violence and major problems in prisons. We know from today's Irish Timesthat 35 inmates slept on floors in Cloverhill Prison this week. The training unit in Mountjoy is closed.I am sure there are circumstances around that. I do not want to pre-empt them or the reasons to which the closure is attributed. We have a closed training and education unit in Mountjoy. That begs the question about prison reform and penal reform. We are going to hear many issues between today and tomorrow in regard to this conference but it is really important that we work with people. We heard the Minister last week talking about the Horses for Hope project in Castlerea. We have seen the horticultural programmes and other arts and cultural programmes that are introduced in the prison.

I was on the visiting committee of both Mountjoy Prison and Saint Patrick's Institution. I always like to think about prisons that everyone in there is someone's son or daughter, brother, sister, mother, father, aunt, nephew, niece. They are all humans, individuals and through sets of circumstances - not always within their own control - they ended up there. Penal reform is really important. I acknowledge the enormous work of Deputies Ivana Bacik and Jennifer Carroll MacNeill and indeed the Deputy Leader, Senator Lisa Chambers, may have been involved in the all-party Oireachtas group on penal reform. Penal reform is a really important area and I would like a debate on it in this House as soon as possible.