I assure the Deputy that I toured the Mountjoy complex at great length and in great detail a couple of months ago. It was after the summer recess of the Houses of the Oireachtas. My aim was to examine conditions for myself as it is sometimes easier to understand something when one sees it with one's own eyes. I am fully acquainted with the conditions at Mountjoy and I fully agree with the Deputy that in the male prison they are substandard and unsatisfactory. As the Deputy will appreciate, the Mountjoy complex has a number of elements including Mountjoy Prison, the training unit and the Dóchas centre for women prisoners. In the last facility conditions are very good by comparison with others. While the fabric of the building which houses the training centre is ageing, conditions there are remarkably superior to those in the main Mountjoy Prison.
It is one of the terrible ironies of Irish life that when Mountjoy Prison was handed over to the State, there was a crude form of in-cell sanitation. This was removed as a security measure in the early 1920s. I regard it as wholly unacceptable that slopping out continues to be the norm at a number of Irish prisons. I was surprised when I visited Cork Prison to see that a portion which had been built in the 1980s had been constructed without in-cell sanitation. I have made it very clear to the Irish Prison Service that I must decide whether to embark on a sticking plaster refurbishment of the Mountjoy complex and expend considerable sums to achieve acceptable standards of sanitation, or to demolish and replace the existing buildings. If I come to the view that the buildings must be demolished and replaced, the issue of the prison's location arises as Deputy Cuffe has suggested.
An argument can be made for maintaining a city centre prison, especially one which is close to the Four Courts and can facilitate committals. It is possible following a reallocation of functions within the Prison Service that Arbour Hill Prison would be used for that purpose. The question must be asked if Mountjoy is all that convenient for many visitors. Getting through the city centre is not that easy these days. It might be the case that a location on the M50 or some other place would be more accessible to more people than Mountjoy is at the moment. I will take this issue into account.
I assure Deputy Cuffe that if it were up to me, the resources which are allocated each year would be used almost exclusively to refurbish and upgrade prison accommodation. One of the problems I have faced is that the massive overtime bill in the Prison Service has cannibalised capital which this House has voted for improvements to prisons. The money has been used to pay for an unsustainable staffing level.