Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 13: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform his views on the fact that the accommodation of the Prisoner Transport Escort Corps is being prioritised over the rehabilitation — including educational — needs of prisoners in Cloverhill Prison; and the discussions he has had with the Prison Service on that matter since the agreement on new working arrangements with the Prison Officers' Association was reached. [9768/06]

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 15: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the steps he has taken since the agreement on new working arrangements with the Prison Officers' Association was reached to date in order to get Cloverhill Prison's educational facility up and running; and the discussions he has had with the Prison Service on the matter. [9767/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 13 and 15 together.

I refer the Deputies to a series of four questions on this topic, Questions Nos. 27, 56, 64 and 65, which I answered on 2 February 2006. On that date, I stated that I had been informed by the director general of the Irish Prison Service that construction of the Cloverhill Prison education unit — comprising a physical education section and six general education classrooms — commenced in 2002 and was virtually completed in 2003, and that the physical education section of the unit had been brought partially into operation and is used daily by prisoners up to the present.

However, it was not possible to commission the general education section of the unit pending the outcome of negotiations with the Prison Officers' Association, POA, on revised working arrangements in the Prison Service. Agreement has since been reached with the POA on the change agenda and the new working arrangements are currently being rolled out across the prison system. This agreement reverses the unacceptable trend of spiralling overtime costs which has been a feature of our prisons operations for many years and as a result there was a reduction in the overtime bill of some €13.4 million in 2004 compared to 2003. A key feature of the new working arrangements is the introduction of a new Prison Service escort corps. Essentially, this is a dedicated corps of staff whose task is to escort prisoners to and from court in new cellular vehicles, thus eliminating the need to resort to overtime working as had been the practice heretofore.

As a temporary measure, the Prison Service escort corps is operating from a section of the unit pending the completion of new accommodation for the corps. It is currently envisaged that this new accommodation will be completed by the second quarter of this year at which time the general education section of the unit will be opened.