Gareth Scahill (Fine Gael)

The Minister of State is very welcome this morning. I thank him for coming in to answer this Commencement matter. The situation regarding the courtroom facilities in Castlerea Prison is something I have wanted to raise for some time. Castlerea is a medium-security prison, purpose built to serve as a committal prison for Connacht and counties like Cavan, Donegal and Longford. It has a capacity of 340. It is a modern facility equipped to deal with the realities of the prison population in the 21st century. However, part of the investment was the provision of a courtroom and associated infrastructure including videolink technology, holding cells and the necessary security systems. These were put in place precisely to reduce the burden of escorting prisoners long distances, increase safety and make the justice system more efficient. Yet, despite this investment, these facilities are laying largely idle. Instead, what continues to happen is that prison officers in Castlerea are escorting prisoners to courts all over the country, including Letterkenny, a round trip of eight hours in some cases. That is not an efficient use of resources, it is not safe and it is not fair on staff who are pulled away from their core duties inside the prison. It is certainly not fair on prisoners who must endure long, disruptive journeys for court appearances that in many cases could and should be dealt with on site via secure videolink.

This raises very basic questions. Why have a courtroom in Castlerea if it is not going to be used? Why spend taxpayers' money on state-of-the-art facilities only to let them gather dust while continuing to incur the cost, the security risk and the human strain of long-distance prisoner travel? There are specific questions that the Department and the Courts Service must try to answer. Why are the modern facilities in Castlerea not being used? Are they legal? Are there administrative issues? Are they infrastructural or resource-based in nature? What steps has the Department taken to make Castlerea Prison courtroom operational? Has any assessment been carried out to compare the cost of these long journeys in financial terms, security terms and staff strain against the cost of activating the courtroom in Castlerea Prison? What is the timeline? When can we expect these facilities to be used on a regular basis, as was originally intended when public money was spent on them?

This is not just a theoretical issue. It is a live, practical problem that affects prison staff, prisoners and our court system and, ultimately, it affects the taxpayer. We are spending twice, once to build the facility that we are not using and, again, to cover the enormous cost of doing these things the old way. At a time when we are talking about efficiencies in justice, modernising our Prison Service, reducing the risk and respecting human rights, it is simply indefensible to have a courtroom in Castlerea Prison lying idle while convoys travel up and down the country every week. I ask the Minister of State to give clarity and tell us what is happening, what is being done to fix it and when we can expect the situation to change.