Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 246: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the accumulated capital cost of the Dóchas women's facility in Mountjoy prison; the facilities it provides for the women prisoners; the level of access the prisoners have to their children; the number of prisoners accommodated in the facility; the period of time they spend in the facility; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35566/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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The Dóchas Centre comprises seven houses as well as a dedicated healthcare unit. There is an average of twelve predominantly single occupancy bedrooms with en-suite facilities in each house. A television is provided in each room. Each house also contains domestic style cooking, laundry and recreational facilities.

All sentenced and remand prisoners in the Dóchas Centre have access to a wide range of services and facilities — including medical, psychological, psychiatric, dentistry, chaplaincy, educational, work training, library and recreational.

Medical, psychological, psychiatric, dentistry and chaplaincy services are provided by a combination of persons who visit the Centre on a full time, part time and sessional basis.

Educational classes and courses are provided by a team of full and part-time teachers in a specially designed Education Unit. Courses offered cover a wide range of academic and practical skills — including Parenting, Home Economics, Drug Awareness, Addiction Studies, Office Skills, Typing/Word Processing, Computers, English, Maths/Numeracy and, Leather and Fabric Crafts. Work and Training opportunities include catering, hairdressing and sewing skills. As part of the roll out of the Proposal for Organisational Change, additional work/training staff will be appointed shortly which will facilitate an increase in the range of vocational activities and opportunities available in the Dóchas Centre. All prisoners have access to a fully fitted out gymnasium and sports hall. There is also a television installed in the recreation area in each House in the Dóchas Centre as well as in each individual room.

Sentenced prisoners are allowed one visit a week but additional visits may be granted from time to time at the discretion of the Governor. Remand prisoners are allowed one visit each day — with the exception of Sunday — but additional visits may be granted at the discretion of the Governor. Visits are supervised by staff but are open. Every effort is made to allow mothers as much flexibility as is possible on visits with their children. There is no statutory entitlement for mothers to have their children stay with them in the Dóchas Centre — although Rule 20 of the Government of Prisons 1947 provides that a child of a female prisoner may be received into prison in certain circumstances. I should add that this Rule is, however, being revised under Rule 19 of the new draft Prison Rules which are available on my Department's web-site.

All prisoners may make a phone call of six minutes duration to a nominated person each day. Organisations who visit the Dóchas Centre include Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Narcotics Anonymous (NA), St Vincent de Paul, Befrienders, Samaritans, Legion of Mary, Tús Nua, Ruhama and Coolmine.

In January, 1996, the Government gave approval for the construction of a new Women's Prison at the Mountjoy Prison Complex. The construction cost was €17.2 million, which included all the costs associated with the construction of both the new prison and a 300 space multistorey car park, adjacent to St. Patrick's Institution, to service the entire prison complex at Mountjoy. Roughly one quarter of the costs are attributable to the multistorey car park.

The total cost of maintenance and improvement works for the Dóchas Centre since it opened to date is approximately €1.5 million.

Figures indicate that on 31 October, 2006 there were 91 persons in custody in the Dóchas Centre, of which 61 are serving a sentence. A breakdown of the sentence lengths are outlined in the table below.