Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 6 Nov 1996

Vol. 471 No. 2

Written Answers. - Conditions at Belmarsh Prison.

Mary Wallace

Question:

56 Miss M. Wallace asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs if he has received any assurances from the United Kingdom Home Office or the Northern Ireland Office regarding improvements of conditions at Belmarsh Prison, where standard category prisoners are locked in their cells for 22.5 hours per day. [20490/96]

Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (Mr. Spring)

The Deputy may be aware that there are currently 15 republican prisoners held in Belmarsh Prison in England: one is a sentenced prisoner categorised as exceptional risk category A and the remaining fourteen are on remand categorised as either exceptional risk or high risk category A prisoners. Four other exceptional risk category A prisoners, until recently held in the Special Secure Unit at Belmarsh Prison, have been moved to the Special Secure Unit in Full Sutton Prison.

I am aware of the conditions in which both sentenced republican prisoners and prisoners on remand who are categorised as either exceptional or high risk Category A have been held. The Government has expressed concern to the relevant British authorities, both within the framework of the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental conference and through the Irish Embassy in London, about humanitarian aspects of the conditions in the Special Secure Unit in Belmarsh. In particular, we have made representations relating to reports that prisoners held in this Unit are being locked up for up to 23 hours a day and endure other poor conditions. We have also expressed humanitarian concerns about the impact on family contact of the policy of closed visits applying to exceptional risk prisoners, as I indicated in my reply to a written question on this issue from Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív on 5 November 1996, Question No. 87. Officials of the Irish Embassy in London have made consular visits to Belmarsh Prison on two occasions this year.

The British authorities have responded that the imposition of the conditions which apply to these prisoners is a function of their categorisation as category A exceptional risk prisoners. They have stated that these prisoners' categorisation is periodically reviewed.

I would like to assure the Deputy that we will continue to express the Government's concern to the British authorities about the humanitarian effects of the conditions imposed on prisoners in Special Secure Units at Belmarsh and elsewhere. Our representations in this respect in the future will of course include those prisoners on remand who have only recently been imprisoned.

I would also reiterate that the Government stands ready to receive those convicted republican prisoners who have applied for transfer to prison in this jurisdiction under the European Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons.