Library facilities are available in all prisons. The majority are managed by qualified staff from the Local Authority Library Services whose salary costs are refunded by the Irish Prison Service. Prison staff assist the librarian staff and operate library services in some prisons. The information requested by the Deputy is set out in the following table in relation to nine prisons.
Prison
|
Scheduled Opening Hours (per week)
|
% hours open January – May 2010
|
Midlands
|
32.0
|
36
|
Portlaoise
|
36.5
|
82
|
Cloverhill
|
35.0
|
66
|
Mountjoy
|
35.0
|
47
|
St Patrick’s Institution
|
35.0
|
99
|
Wheatfield
|
24.0
|
50
|
Loughan House
|
7.0
|
91
|
Shelton Abbey
|
10.0
|
98
|
Castlerea
|
20.0
|
28
|
In relation to the other five prisons comparable data is not available. This is due to the fact that these prisons operate varying access arrangements structured to reflect demand including scheduled and ad-hoc opening hours to best facilitate access by prisoners. Whilst every effort is made to maintain, as far as possible, reasonable access to library facilities in keeping with demand for such access the deployment of resources to other operational functions to ensure the efficient operation of individual prisons has meant that opening hours were restricted in some prisons from time to time over the period.