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Irish Prison Service.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 10 March 2004

Wednesday, 10 March 2004

Questions (143)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh

Question:

210 Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he will give details of the presentation by private prison companies Group 4 and Securicor at the headquarters of the Irish Prison Service in March 2002, including the date on which the presentation was made; if this presentation was initiated by the Irish Prison Service and/or the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform; if the presentation was attended by the director general of the Prison Service and/or his designated representative; if the presentation was attended by the former Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and/or his designated representative; if a written record or other report of the information gathered by this information gathering exercise was submitted to the director general of the Prison Service or to the former Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform following the presentation; and if such written record or report was made, if the current Minister has seen it or been briefed on its contents.. [8103/04]

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Written answers

As outlined in my reply to Parliamentary Question No. 218 of 19 February 2004, the two companies mentioned by the Deputy made presentations to officials of the Irish Prison Service, in March 2002, concerning the range of services they provided to the criminal justice system in the UK. One further company called Custodial Services Limited also made a presentation at that time about its capability to provide transport services to the Irish Prison Service. The presentations were requested by the Irish Prison Service and were made to two senior officials and one middle ranking official of the Prison Service on 25 March 2002. The director general of the Prison Service did not attend. There were no other attendees apart from the Prison Service officials and the companies themselves. No report was compiled by any of the three officials following the presentations.

I am informed that this was purely a routine commercial presentation to the Irish Prison Service aimed at assessing the kind of transport and security services available on the market place, and that there was no follow up of any kind.

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