asked Minister for Justice if he will outline the measures taken to date to implement the recommendations of the Whitaker report on the penal system.
Ceisteanna—Questions Oral Answers. - Whitaker Report on Penal System.
5.
I refer the Deputy to the answers given to Question Nos. 29 and 24 of 23 October and 27 November last respectively in which my predecessor indicated that, as the issues raised in the report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Penal System were both complex and important, it would be some time before decisions in relation to it were finalised.
An analysis of the committee's findings is continuing in my Department and I am at present consulting with a number of groups — mainly those directly involved in the operation of the penal system — about aspects of the report.
I was quite prepared to accept the Minister's answers in October and November last that he had not time to consider the implications. But I am surprised now. I would ask the Minister to indicate if he has not had time to absorb some of the recommendations which could easily be implemented straight away. I would ask the Minister if he has looked at recommendations such as the development of the liaison service. This has been there for years. Whitaker pointed out the importance of developing this service. Has the Minister considered that? The question of non-custodial sentences has been continuously discussed and reviewed. Specific recommendations were made by Whitaker. Has the Minister considered such issues as the confiscation of assets, as recommended by Whitaker? Finally, the recommendation in regard to an open regime for women prisoners, has the Minister considered that as a fairly simple matter to operate? Could the Minister give us an indication of some of the more easily operated recommendations?
I can give Deputy Mac Giolla an indication of one decision which was very easy to make which was the appointment of a director of medical services to the prison service. Deputy Mac Giolla will agree with me that that is something which we would have had to do even if we never had set up that committee of inquiry.
On the other issues Deputy Mac Giolla has raised, I can only ask him to accept that the problem is not with my absorption capacity but rather with the fact that there are a number of other groups which have to be consulted. If I could very briefly indicate one of the areas which illustrates the difficulty, the committee recommended the setting up of a prisons board. They did not make any specific recommendations as to the relationship that should exist between the board on the one hand and the director of the prison services on the other. There are a wide number of options there. Even that relationship does not finally answer the question of the relationship that should exist between the prison board and the Minister for Justice. There are a good many issues in that report which need a lot of discussion with other involved groups before I would be in a position to put proposals to the Government.
I can understand that. I did not even mention the prisons board because I recognise it would be one of the more difficult items to come to a final decision on. What I am trying to ask the Minister is whether the recommendations of the Whitaker report are being considered in the day-to-day developments which are taking place. For instance, in regard to the building of the new Wheatfield prison, which was originally to be a women's prison, the Whitaker report recommends an open regime for women prisoners apart from a very small number. Has that altered the Minister's view of the Wheatfield prison? Is there to be a women's section in that prison?
The Whitaker report has not altered my view on Wheatfield Prison; but I should point out for the information of the House that the Wheatfield facility, which will be completed towards the end of next year and which will come into operation early in the following year, has been built in a way that makes it capable of a series of different types of use at the same time. In other words, it can be broken into sections with different uses for each section. Therefore, it is not just a single purpose facility.
Would the Minister agree that the appointment of the director of medical services was one which was forced in effect by this House through the protestations of Members who brought the bad situation which was in existence to our attention? Would the Minister agree that there is a very strong suggestion that the prisons' report has been shelved or at least given a low priority for the present? Would the Minister say whether this report is getting the priority which it deserves?
No, no and yes.
Can I take it that the Minister's reply of yes is that this report is getting the fullest possible priority at present?
That is correct.