asked the Minister for Defence whether he is aware that a Curragh Camp inmate (name supplied) suffered a slipped disc on the 27th April, 1973, and was left unattended in his cell for some hours; and, if so, the action that has been taken in this matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Curragh Camp Inmates.
44.
The prisoner in question claims that he suffers from a back condition. He was receiving medication for the condition before the date mentioned and continued to receive it for some days afterwards until recovery.
I did not quite catch what the Minister said. It may be that the Minister did reply to my question, which was whether, on this particular date, this particular inmate was left in this condition for an unduly long period?
I did not hear the Deputy.
It seems to be mutual. I am asking whether the Minister answered the question I asked. If he did I did not hear the reply. I asked whether, on this particular date, this particular inmate was left unattended for an unduly long period in this condition?
The prisoner refused to get off his bed so that the cell could be searched. Members of the prison staff lifted him from his bed and placed him on the floor of the cell. About 30 minutes after the search was completed the Governor received word that the prisoner was complaining of an injury to his back. A medical officer arrived within 30 minutes but the prisoner refused medical attention on that night. The prisoner complains that he suffers from a bad back and he was receiving medication for that back both before the date and after it.
This is what puzzles me. If he was suffering from a bad back and if his condition was, as I understand it to be, a condition of slipped disc, and as he had been an inmate for some time, surely it was a most unreasonable, perhaps even a dangerous procedure, to seek to have him searched in his own cell? What was expected to be found other than that he had a slipped disc?
I want to assure the House and the Deputy that I have addressed myself to the problems of the prisoners in the Curragh Camp as assiduously as I could since I became Minister for Defence. I am trying to give them as humane treatment as is humanly possible. The position is that this is not a proper custodial prison. Heretofore detainees there, after they had their breakfast, were brought out around the Curragh Camp. One of the things they did over the years was to improve all the football pitches. On wet days they worked inside in gymnasia, prepared walls for painting and so on. It never was meant to be a custodial prison and there is a necessity to search the prison regularly. The Deputy will be aware that, last October, 11 persons attempted to escape and seven of them escaped. One person has since been apprehended and there are still six people at large. The prison was never intended as a custodial prison that would stop people from escaping. For that reason it is necessary, when the prisoners are in their cells, to search both the prison itself and the cells and this is done in the most humane way possible.
Question No. 45.
I am not in any way reflecting on the overall statement that the Minister has given, but I am still puzzled as to the situation in which it was necessary to search underneath a prisoner who was already receiving treatment for a bad back. Generally the treatment for a bad back is to stretch it out and keep it there.
The file I have with me does not indicate that the prisoner had any serious condition of his back. In fact, he was playing football regularly and that sort of thing but he had complained—whenever they have their medical examination—of a bad back and he was given a rub for his back. I do not want to use a trade name here but he was also given what appear to me to be penicillin tablets, because he complained of this both before and after the incident.