asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the action, if any, he intends taking regarding conditions of women prisoners in Maghaberry prison and other British jails where strip-searching continues despite many previous representations from his predecessors.
Written Answers. - Strip-Searching.
65.
I am deeply concerned by the practice of strip-searching of women prisoners in prisons in Northern Ireland and in Britain.
Strip-searching in Northern Ireland is a distasteful procedure which many find distressing. While security considerations prevent it from being dispensed with entirely in the continuing absence of an acceptable alternative, the dignity of the human person requires that the most sparing use possible be made of it. I wish to see the use of strip-searching in Maghaberry kept to an absolute minimum. I am availing, accordingly, of the framework provided by the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Conference to press the British Government to reduce the practice of strip-searching to the absolute minimum consistent with prison security. I intend to put forward views and proposals regarding ways in which the present level of strip-searching in Northern Ireland could be significantly reduced.
The same considerations apply to the practice of strip-searching Irish prisoners in British prisons, in relation to which I shall be availing of my other contacts with the British authorities to make known my views.