Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Question 81: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform his views on the concerns expressed by a person (details supplied) that the building of large scale prisons, such as Thornton Hall, will do nothing to reduce violence in prisons and that smaller units are a better way to minimise violence and provide opportunities for rehabilitation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34527/07]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The concerns expressed by the individual referred to by the Deputy are set out in a recently published article. That article states that instead of having smaller units with self contained facilities at the new Thornton Hall prison development in North County Dublin, it instead appears that the intention of the Irish Prison Service is to have two main prison buildings on the complex each accommodating between 400-500 male prisoners, with shared facilities. Such a course of action, the author claims, would mean that threats of intimidation and violence would infect the regime of the new prison.

This assertion is completely without factual basis and I have been informed by the Irish Prison Service that they are unclear as to what the author is basing his views as he has never seen the proposed plans for the new prison development.

I can assure the Deputy the secure and safe custody of all prisoners and staff has been and will continue to be the primary focus of efforts at the conceptual, study and design stages of the Thornton Hall project.

Thornton Hall will not operate as a single large prison, but rather a campus development containing eight individual, practically self-contained facilities, each with its own unique and discrete regime which will give access to work training, education, rehabilitative programmes and recreation areas and activities appropriate to that population. Such a range of facilities cannot be provided to prisoners on a wide scale basis at their present locations in Mountjoy.

The accommodation units in Thornton Hall will encompass a range of accommodation styles and designs. The main house blocks will contain 192 cells over four wings with two landings per wing. The range of accommodation facilities reflects that some accommodation units will have no more that ten rooms in each house and some accommodation is singular apartments style. This range of accommodation styles and design will allow for the appropriate and separate accommodation of prisoners who may be in conflict on the outside.