Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Question 286: To ask the Minister for Justice and Law Reform if he will provide details of the cost in each of the past three years in respect of each of the 15 prison visiting committees; the expenses paid to each member of each prison visiting committee; if he will detail all other costs in each of the past three years connected with each visiting committee's work and the drafting and publication of all prison visiting committee reports [41565/10]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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A Visiting Committee is appointed to each prison under the Prisons (Visiting Committees) Act, 1925 and Prisons (Visiting Committees) Order, 1925. The function of Visiting Committees is to visit at frequent intervals the prison to which they are appointed and hear any complaints which may be made to them by any prisoner. They report to me any abuses observed or found by them in the prison and any repairs which they think may be urgently needed. The Visiting Committee members have free access either collectively or individually to every part of their prison.

Members of the 14 Visiting Committees are appointed by the Minister for Justice and Law Reform for a term not exceeding three years. A new expenses regime was brought into effect on 1 January, 2006. This new system replaced a travel and subsistence expense type system and provides for a per diem payment at a current rate of €142.50 per visit or meeting, which is subject to tax, and a vouched travel expenses allowance of up to € 30 per visit / meeting. The compilation of statistics relating to amounts paid to individual visiting committee members by way of travel and subsistence for each of the past four years would require a disproportionate and inordinate amount of staff time and effort to prepare and could not be justified in current circumstances where there are other significant demands on resources.

However, the following table sets out the total expenditure paid out to the Visiting Committees over each of the past six years.