Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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667. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will raise with the British and Northern Irish authorities the question of whether they are committed to the August 2010 agreement regarding a prison (details supplied). [26682/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Government remains committed to supporting the implementation of the August 2010 agreement at Maghaberry Prison and my predecessor raised this matter with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and with the then Northern Ireland Minister for Justice. The 2014 Stocktake report on conditions in the separated regime in Maghaberry makes clear that not all the principles agreed between prison management and prisoners in 2010 had been adhered to. Some undertakings were not acted upon and the potential of the 2010 agreement has not been fully realised. Implementation of the recommendations of the Stocktake report, which was carried out by an Independent Assessment Team, is the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Prison Service. My officials at the Belfast Secretariat will continue to raise with the relevant authorities the importance of moving forward on the Stocktake report. The Stocktake report recommends that separated republican prisoners be given increased access to landings, up to six prisoners at a time, in a context where prisoners who come from different republican groups agree to share all the facilities and physical space. These groups do not always work in a unitary fashion. Progress to this goal has been complicated by searches on the wing, which in turn has contributed to heightened tensions.

Differences between prison management and prisoners in the separated regime on how this recommendation might be implemented remains a challenge which has not yet been addressed.

The Government attaches particular importance to the Northern Ireland Executive’s Action Plan on Paramilitarism and in particular the intention to establish a review of the separated regime in Maghaberry. This is a welcome initiative which I hope could provide a context to move forward to a more positive atmosphere within the prison. I look forward to the review being put in place once there is a new Executive up and running at Stormont.