Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 8 Apr 1986

Vol. 365 No. 1

Adjournment Debate. - Safety of Portlaoise Prison Officers.

Mr. Hyland

I thank you, Sir, for allowing me to raise on the Adjournment the security of prison officers in Portlaoise prison arising from the recent serious breach in security following the publication of the book of evidence which gave the names and other personal details of 30 prison officers.

The House will agree that prison officers generally carry out a very demanding and dangerous job in the national interest. They are subjected to strains and tensions which are not associated with most other types of employment. The House will further agree that officers based at Portlaoise prison, because of the nature of that prison, are at even greater risk than their colleagues in other institutions. A tragic example of that risk was very sadly demonstrated two years ago by the shooting of a senior prison officer from Portlaoise prison in our capital city. After a lot of agony and suffering that prison officer died.

It is inevitable that Portlaoise prison officers are extremely conscious of their vulnerability in this very vital area of State security. Their concern for the security and safety of their wives and families is even more understandable, because they too live in fear of reprisals from offenders and their associates and in the past there was evidence of such threats being made.

What happened in Portlaoise in relation to the publication of the book of evidence represents an unprecedented breach of security which demands a full investigation with appropriate action being taken to ensure that never again will there be a repeat of such a despicable occurrence. Apart from the effects of this incident on prison officers there is growing public disquiet that such an incident could happen. It is even more disturbing to read in the national newspapers the conflicting views of people in two vital areas of national security as to who is to blame for this security breach.

This is an intolerable situation and brings to a head weaknesses and breaches in the system which have been emerging with increasing frequency over the past couple of years. Because of the conditions laid down about what I can say in this debate, I am aware that I cannot go in detail into some of these very vital areas, much as I would like to do. I respect the Chair's ruling and I am grateful for the opportunity of raising the main problem this evening.

Could any Member of this House, even in his wildest dreams, have envisaged a situation where the names, home addresses and other personal details of no fewer than 30 officers at Portlaoise prison would be passed to the prisoners for whom they had responsibility? If one read of such an incident in a wild west book it would make good reading but that it could happen in our top security prison is a staggering thought. As a direct result of this incident the State provided an intelligence brief for these people which they could never have hoped to get through their own channels or investigations. The names, home addresses, the location of the wives and children of prison officers and other details in relation to the performance of these prison officers are now in the hands of those who should not have access to such vital information. Because of my responsibility as a public representative I will restrain myself from going into further detail, but the Minister knows exactly what I mean when I say there is information on file and in the book of evidence dealing with the performance of prison officers which makes them very vulnerable.

I had the pleasure of being with the Minister last week for the opening of a new prison officers' training complex in Portlaoise. For the first time in his official capacity as Minister for Justice, Deputy Dukes had an opportunity of meeting senior personnel and representatives of the Prison Officers' Association. I hope that very cordial meeting in Portlaoise will be the beginning of the end of the cold war that has existed for far too long between the prison officers and the Department and the Minister. I appeal to the Minister to resume normal dialogue with these officers as quickly as possible because it is in the national interest that this should be done.

It is pathetic to see people in two vital areas of State security publicly disagreeing as who is to blame for this incident. I am not surprised about this because there can be no doubt that this is embarrassing not only for those concerned but also for the Minister and for Members of this House. I am not advocating a witch hunt and neither, I hope, am I being sensational in what I am saying here tonight.

The Minister owes it to the House to put the record straight and to state what action he proposes taking to prevent a recurrence of a similar incident. What has happened has happened and he is now left with the problem of ensuring the safety and security of the officers affected by this incident and of their wives and their children.

We read reports in the newspapers that the office of the DPP — I am not going to disobey your wishes in any way, Sir — is inadequately staffed to deal with the growing volume of work which must be dealt with in that office.

A Deputy

There is a great deal of inefficiency there.

Mr. Hyland

If that is so — it is not the first time that we have heard and read reports in relation to inadequate staffing within the office of the DPP — the Minister and the Government must take the blame. I expect the Minister to deal with the situation and to tell the House whether the office of the DPP is inadequately staffed, whether he has not the staff to enable him to deal with the very urgent matters that office has to deal with. If we are talking about law and order, surely it must be obvious to the Minister and to every Member of this House that we must make vital, essential staff available to the key areas of operation, and one of the key areas of operation has to be the office of the DPP.

I know from my local experience of the prison in Protlaoise that prison duty has created a strain and a great demand on Garda resources in the area. The presence of a top security prison in Portlaoise has affected overall community policing in the two counties of Laois and Offaly. The gardaí based at Portlaoise prison and providing support staff for prison officers are doing a very demanding and difficult job and they too deserve to have this matter clarified once and for all, because speculation is rife in relation to who is to blame, who is responsible and how such an event could happen. I say to the Minister that much anxiety exists to ensure that it cannot happen again.

I have written down a few relevant questions which arise more or less from what I have said and I hope that the Minister will have sufficient time to reply to them. This incident relates to the attempted breakout from Portlaoise prison and the investigation which followed that event. My first question to the Minister relates to the Garda authorities. They carried out an investigation into the escape at Portlaoise on 24 November. Did the Garda carry out a separate investigation into the security clearance of prison staff in the prison? Much of what has happened could very well hinge around the answer to that question. If the Garda carried out a separate investigation, why was the information taken from prison staff sent to the DPP? The prison officers are entitled to know why it was necessary that this very confidential information which they gave in wholehearted co-operation with the Garda to help them to complete their files be sent to the DPP. If the Garda did not carry out a separate investigation, why were the questions asked about the prison officers in the first instance? Those questions related to their personal lives and that of their families.

A further question is whether the Garda authorities were aware that such detailed information about the prison staff was included in the book of evidence. Again this question is very relevant to the debate here tonight. Was it not known or considered by either the Garda authorities or the DPP that such detailed information on prison staff would place their lives and those of their families at risk from subversive attacks? It should have been known to anybody carrying out an investigation in this very sensitive area that the release and disclosure of that information and making it publicly available would put these men and their wives and families at serious risk. The Minister owes it to the House to let us know who is responsible for having that information, which was extracted confidentially in the first instance from prison officers with a great degree of co-operation on their part, included in the book of evidence. Those officers were more than willing to assist and facilitate the Garda in their inquiries.

Is the Minister satisfied that one State agency can take action by placing the safety of other State employees and their families in danger? That is what has happened in this instance. I hope the Minister will make some comment on that.

As a result of this affair, what is the cost of the additional security now being provided to protect prison staff in the form of gardaí who have to remain at the prison 24 hours a day to provide security for some of these prison officers? Weigh that additional cost against the cost of providing the staff needed in the office of the DPP which would result in ensuring that this kind of incident could not occur. I think we have our priorities mixed up in relation to the whole affair.

Finally, I say to the Minister that morale at present in the prison service is extremely low. Prison officers are worried and concerned. The Minister must restore that morale. He is capable of doing that. I make a final appeal to him to do it rapidly because this is a vital area of national security.

Minister for Justice (Mr. Dukes)

I must say to the House and to Deputy Hyland that I am extremely concerned about the situation that has emerged and to which he has referred. I was extremely concerned about it the first moment it was brought to my attention, for many of the reasons Deputy Hyland has set out here tonight. Prison officers have to carry out a job which carries a certain element of risk and, as Deputy Hyland points out, an additional element of risk is involved for prison officers serving in Portlaoise. It is part of the job. It is quite right to be concerned about anything that adds unnecessarily to that risk. I am most concerned that in this situation we are faced with circumstances which add, as it turns out, unnecessarily to that risk. It is a matter which requires very careful scrutiny and evaluation.

Coming first to the position of the prison officers themselves. I can fully understand their concerns in this situation. I want to take issue with Deputy Hyland over one point he made. It may be because the Deputy got a little bit carried away with his oratory. I want to make it very clear that we do not have a situation here, as Deputy Hyland alleges, where there have been increasingly frequent breaches of security in recent years. That is not the situation we are facing here.

Mr. Hyland

To put the record straight, I did not say that nor did I imply it.

Mr. Dukes

I hope that I misheard Deputy Hyland there, but I have written down as near as I can the words he actually used. I want to make it clear that that is not the situation we are facing.

Mr. Hyland

For the record, I was referring to the operations of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions where in the past books of evidence have been published late. I said it all in the context of the non-availability of staff in the office.

Mr. Dukes

The Deputy is getting contentious about that. But I do want to make it clear, not for the purpose of having a go at Deputy Hyland, that we are not facing a situation where there have been increasingly frequent breaches of security. I want that to be clear. What we have is a very real concern with the security of prison officers themselves. A number of steps have been taken in the past in response to both the general situation of their job and in response to specific incidents. Deputy Hyland mentioned one, the absolutely abhorrent shooting of a prison officer in Dublin. Another was an occasion when threats were made by a particular prisoners revenge group against prison officers. A third was the situation following the attempted breakout from Portlaoise last November. On each of those occasions the arrangements for the security of prison officers were further reviewed.

Each of these occasions was a very different kind of occasion. There are a variety of situations that do not constitute any kind of pattern of breaches. They are different situations. But after each one of those incidents a further review was carried out of the security of each prison officer involved.

To give an example of some of the measures that were taken on those occasions, I will just give some instances following the second last of the incidents I mentioned — the attempted breakout in 1985. Following that incident arrangements were made to make available to prison officers interest-free loans so that they could install alarm devices in their homes. In addition to that the Garda crime prevention staff made themselves available to prison officers so that they could advise them on measures they themselves could take in order to improve their own security. In this particular case, when it came to light that the situation was as it is — a fact about which we are all rightly very concerned — we immediately took steps to ensure that any additional security necessary and feasible was made available to cover the situation of those prison officers. I am sure that the House will understand that I do not intend to go into those measures because that would vitiate the very measures themselves. But we have taken steps to improve the security cover for the prison officers involved. For exactly the same reason that I do not intend to go into the detail of those measures I will not reply to the Deputy's question as to the extra cost of providing those security measures. I am not going to go into that area at all except to assure Deputy Hyland and the House that we have taken all feasible steps to meet the situation as it has emerged.

I also want to point out, without venturing into the forbidden territory that Deputy Hyland was so careful to skirt around, that the Director of Public Prosecutions has recently issued a set of very clear and specific guidelines to those who were involved in the preparation of books of evidence — people over whom I have no control — to be followed in preparation of books of evidence and which, among other things, will ensure that this kind of incident will not happen again.

I would like to correct one or two other impressions that might have been gained from remarks that Deputy Hyland made. The people who prepare books of evidence are not people who are involved in State security. I want to get that point on the record. The questions that Deputy Hyland raised are mostly concerned with the preparation of the books of evidence, and since it is not a matter over which I have direct control I do not intend to go into that area. It will suffice to say that the instructions to which I have just referred were issued and should prevent a recurrence of this situation. I do not accept any suggestion that there is a cold war going on between the prison officers and the Minister for Justice. I am not engaged in a cold war with anyone.

Mr. Hyland

I did not say that.

Mr. Dukes

Nor has there been anything like a cold war for quite some time. References to industrial relations in the prison service in those kind of terms are immoderate, to say the least.

Mr. Hyland

The Minister knows well what I am talking about.

Mr. Dukes

They are most unhelpful, as are repeated assertions that morale is low. Those of us in this House who deal with these problems, whether as Members of this House simpliciter or as office holders in Government, have an obligation to make sure that the language we use does not make progress any more difficult and does not contribute to undesirable situations coming about. I do not accept either that it is proper to say that speculation is rife.

I want to conclude by saying that I fully appreciate the difficulties and the fears of the people involved in this situation who, as Deputy Hyland has pointed out, co-operated in the investigation of a very serious matter and who showed by their co-operation in that investigation that they have a very high level of commitment to the job that they are called upon to do. I am concerned to ensure that the protection that we can give those people and their families, following on the exercise of their own responsibilities, will be adequate and will match up to the requirements of the situation. I can assure the House that I will do anything that it is within my compass to do just that: to protect the people concerned and to ensure that there is not a recurrence of this kind of situation.

The Dáil adjourned at 9 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 9 April 1986.