asked the Minister for Justice (a) the number of occasions in the period August 1972 to August 1982 in which illegal or illegally obtained drugs have been discovered in prisons or institutions administered by his Department; (b) the amount and type of drug discovered on each occasion; (c) the general measures taken to prevent the introduction of and use of illegal or illegally obtained drugs within prisons and institutions under the control of his Department and (d) the nature and extent of training, if any, given to prison staff in the area of drug control.
Written Answers. - Illegal Use of Drugs in Prisons.
77.
Limerick East): It would not be possible without an inordinate use of staff time, to compile statistics of the kind requested by the Deputy at (a) and (b) of his question and I am not prepared to deploy staff on such a task at the expense of delay in performing more important and more urgent tasks.
In regard to (c) efforts are made to prevent the introduction of drugs by searching prisoners suspected of having or using drugs and by close supervision of visits. Visits to prisoners suspected of drug involvement are restricted to special visiting boxes where the passing of drugs can be prevented.
With reference to (d), some training in drug identification and control is given to recruits during their induction training and occasionally selected officers are sent for refresher courses with the Garda drug squad. I might add that training generally for prison officers is one of the matters which falls within the terms of reference of the Committee of Inquiry into the Penal System and the committee is expected to report shortly.