Vol. 560 No. 5
133 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of staff in the prison system involved in servicing prison visiting committees; the annual cost of such services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3103/03]
A visiting committee is appointed to each prison under the Prisons (Visiting Committees) Act 1925 and Prisons (Visiting Committees) Order 1925. The legislation does not specify the support services that are to be provided to the prison visiting commit tees. Traditionally, a clerk from the institution to which a committee is appointed provides administrative support to it. Accordingly, there is now a total of 15 clerks providing support to the visiting committees, on a part-time basis in addition to their other duties and, as such, it is not possible to accurately quantify the total annual costs of servicing the prison visiting committees. However, the clerks are paid an allowance for performing this specific function. The total cost of this particular allowance in 2002 was € 9,943.36 which covered the 16 visiting committees then in operation.
Question No. 134 answered with Question No. 16.
Question No. 135 answered with Question No. 44.
