asked the Minister for Justice the proposals he has for the construction of a new jail.
49.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Prison Building Programme.
48.
asked the Minister for Justice when the new women's prison will be operational.
With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 48 and 49 together.
As the Deputies may be aware, I have made a number of public announcements concerning the prison building programme and the plans for new accommodation and facilities generally.
Present proposals may be summarised as follows:
(1) A new educational and training centre, adjacent to Mountjoy, providing about 100 places is almost completed and will be brought into operation this year.
(2) Work on the conversion of the former military detention barracks at Arbour Hill is also almost completed and this, too, will be opened for the reception of offenders later this year. It will be a modern prison for about 100 offenders.
(3) Details of the design of a new women's prison, to be built at Kilbarrack, County Dublin, are being finalised at present. It is difficult, at this stage, to say when the centre will be operational. All I can say is that construction, which should take approximately two years to complete, will begin as soon as possible.
(4) Negotiations are in progress for the acquisition of a site for a new detention centre for juveniles in the Dublin area. A site has already been acquired for the building of a centre in Cork.
(5) Preliminary planning has begun on a new high security unit which will provide about 30 places. The present intention is that this unit will be built in the Portlaoise Prison complex.
Can the Minister state where the site in Dublin for juvenile offenders is to be located?
As negotiations are still in progress for the acquisition of a site, I will communicate the information privately to the Deputy.
Regarding an educational centre at Mountjoy, the Minister stated in reply to another question put by me in the past that this centre which would cater for about 100 persons would be available before Easter. Does he intend delivering on that promise?
Present information is that it will be tight to have it before Easter but it will be shortly after Easter anyway. Staff is being recruited and the final t's are being crossed and the i's are being dotted.
What type of personnel does the Minister envisage will staff the educational centre in Mountjoy? What type of qualifications will they have? Will they be prison wardens or prison officers?
This is raising very large issues. This institute is part of Mountjoy Prison and will have to be staffed by the prison staff. Like other educational facilities provided in the prison service, specialised services will be provided by specialists from outside the prison service.
What type of specialists does the Minister envisage? Will they become members of the Civil Service or the Department of Justice? Will there be sociologists and other qualified people?
Whatever specialists are required in the various teaching skills, remedial teaching, manual teaching, academic teaching, and they will have the assistance of psychologists. In fact, it will be the most modern penal institution in Europe when it is staffed and fully operational.
Will the Minister agree that it was begun by the former Government?
For the umpteenth time may I give credit to Deputy O'Malley for his initiative in this regard?
As the Minister did not mention the Curragh in his reply, am I to take it that the present arrangements there and consequent flying restrictions are of a temporary nature?
I have no function in relation to the Curragh.
Is the Minister serious when he says he has no function——
It is a matter for the Minister for Defence.
Has the Minister no communication with the Minister for Defence in this matter?
Of course I have. The question related to the administration of the prison in the Curragh and the consequential regulations. I am not in a position to answer for another Minister.
Seeing that the prisoners in the Curragh are there because the security in the Minister's prisons——
Once the Minister says he has no responsibility the matter cannot be pursued.
The Curragh is being used as a prison at the moment and we now have flying restrictions.
I did not make the flying regulations.
What about the present arrangements?
Question No. 50.
Does the Minister see the Curragh being used for the holding of prisoners, not military prisoners in the sense that the detention barracks should be used for?
I hope not. The facilities of the Curragh had to be availed of because of the presence within our prisons of a ruthless group of subversives. As soon as they begin to obey the law our prisons can return to normality. Then I hope the prison in the Curragh will be used for the purpose for which it was originally intended, the detention of military prisoners. At the moment it serves a critical function within our State.
Does the Minister intend to go ahead with the building of the women's prison at Kilbarrack? I understand that the building will cost something in the region of £2 million. How can the Government justify an expenditure of this magnitude to accommodate such a small number of female prisoners—the last figures I saw were ten or 12 women?
Two matters arise from the Deputy's question: first, the project is going ahead and, second, it will not cost the figure the Deputy mentioned.