asked the Minister for Justice in the wake of the recent riots and damage to State property at Fort Mitchel, the action he has now taken to remedy the frightening defects revealed in the management and security of the prison and to provide adequate protection for civilian occupants of the island as well as his own Garda and prison staff.
Ceisteanna—Questions Oral Answers - Fort Mitchel Prison.
35.
Limerick East): At the outset a Cheann Comhairle, I think it right to say that I deplore the tone of the Deputy's question in so far as it relates to criticism of prison management. I have already pointed out to the spokesman for the Deputy's party that it is wrong to make critical comments about those who are not in a position to defend themselves against charges of this kind either in this House or elsewhere.
(Interruptions.)
There are complaints that Deputies cannot hear the Minister.
(Limerick East): As I have already said in this House on the many occasions on which the issue of Fort Mitchel has been raised by Deputies, the Government's decision to utilise Fort Mitchel to house prisoners was made against a background of a rising prison population and in the knowledge that no purpose built prison accommodation was available or likely to be available until 1987.
The efforts of prison management to make Fort Mitchel a workable custodial institution, despite its inherent drawbacks, deserve the highest praise. It is worth recording that in the space of a few months over 120 prisoners were being accommodated there. The fact that Fort Mitchel was able to cope with those numbers during the months when, traditionally, the prison population reaches a peak was a major contribution to efforts to combat crime, particularly the epidemic earlier this year of car stealing.
On the question of housing for families on the island, six have already left, five to local authority housing in Passage West and the sixth to private accommodation. Of the two remaining families, one has acquired private accommodation in Cobh and the last family will be rehoused in Passage West. I would like to publicly acknowledge the assistance of Cork County Council in securing the rehousing of these families.
To turn to the final part of the Deputy's question, I think it must be accepted that the job of both gardaí and prison officers can never be made entirely free of any element of risk, but all concerned with the deployment of staff obviously are concerned to avoid unnecessary risk. No reduction in the number of prison staff assigned to Fort Mitchel or the number of gardaí who perform duty there during the hours of darkness has taken place despite the reduction in the number of prisoners which occurred following the disturbance.
Fort Mitchel now accommodates 50 or so prisoners and the number will be increased to 80 or so in a few months' time. The question of major development of the remainder of the fort is at present under consideration.
I found it extremely difficult to hear the Minister's reply. It is important if we are to make any constructive contribution that we should be able to hear the Minister. In order to establish the extent of the problem we are talking about I ask the Minister to inform the House of the cost of repairing the damage to Fort Mitchel arising from the prison riot which took place there. Will the Minister please now inform us of the cost of bringing about the necessary repairs?
(Limerick East): There will not be a cost of bringing about necessary repairs. If we redevelop Fort Mitchel it will be developed as a secure prison and it will be a new developed prison. The question of repairs to damage in A Block will not arise.
So the Minister cannot and is not prepared to put a cost on the extent of the damage which took place under his jurisdiction in Fort Mitchel.
(Limerick East): It would be very difficult to give a cost relating to a building which was built in 1806 and was added to at various points during the intervening years. The damage in large part consisted of the destruction of wooden floors and wooden ceilings which the prison authorities had intended taking out anyway and replacing with concrete floors and concrete ceilings. According to preliminary reports the walls and roof of the prison remain intact and structurally sound. It will not be put back as it was. If there are development plans for Fort Mitchel it will be developed as a secure prison. Sketch plans are being drawn up at the moment to evaluate the possibility of doing that.
I find it totally unacceptable that the Minister responsible for the prison system is not in a position to tell this House the cost of making that prison habitable again. There are prisoners in it at present, and the Minister indicated——
A question.
——following the burning of the prison that repairs would have to be carried out. I will leave that for the moment and put it to the Minister that a major contributing factor to the riots in Fort Mitchel was the category of prisoners sent there, some of whom were committed on very serious charges and, I hold, most unsuited to an open prison. In the light of that costly and embarrassing experience, will the Minister assure the House that this will not occur again? Can he give the House details in relation to the screening process which took place within the existing prison system to select the prisoners allocated to Fort Mitchel?
(Limerick East): There are no saints in prison and, since I have introduced a number of alternatives to imprisonment, particularly the Community Service Orders Act, quite a number of people who have been in prison over the past 12 months are now serving sentences to work rather than sentences of imprisonment. One of the consequences of that to which people have not adverted is that the level of the offenders who are in prison now in terms of difficulty is higher than it was and those in prison now on average are of a more violent nature than was the case before we developed alternatives for care in the community. If we take that segment out of the prison system, the next segment of a less offensive nature we deal with are those who go into open centres, to Shelton Abbey and Loughan House, for example. So the catetory designated for Spike Island was a category above that. Any prisoner who was moved from another prison to Fort Mitchel on Spike Island was moved on the basis of the recommendation of the prison in which that prisoner was serving his sentence.