I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this important matter. The alleged incident to which the matter relates is the latest in a chapter of accidents which will be synonymous with the tenure of the Minister for Justice, Deputy Owen, the Minister with the un-Midas touch. We usually associate prisons with breakouts — thankfully there have been few of these — but this is a new phenomenon, a prison break-in. According to a report in a Sunday newspaper dated 1 December last——
Adjournment Debate. - Alleged Break-in at Wheatfield Prison.
The Deputy should not believe everything he reads in the newspapers.
——there was a break-in at the top security prison at Wheatfield which houses some of the country's worst criminals. The break-in is reported to have happened on the night of Monday, 11 November. The report states that a number of individuals entered the prison complex by using cutting equipment to punch a hole in the perimeter gate. The gate is surrounded by cameras and high walls. However, the high-technology cameras along that stretch of the jail perimeter were not working at the time. The report states that the people who broke in made their way under cover of darkness to a second unguarded gate which provides access to the main prison complex. They left after tampering with that second gate.
The incident was discovered by prison staff on Tuesday, 12 November, the day the Minister for Justice was supposed to defend herself in this House following the debacle over the failure to inform Judge Dominic Lynch that he had been delisted from service in the Special Criminal Court. A source is quoted as saying:
The whole thing was kept hushed up because of the implications of what could have happened. The people who got in could easily have got into any cell in the prison. It would have been the last straw for the Minister.
A Department of Justice source is quoted as saying that "this is a professional operation and is being treated as a major incident. We do not know the reason for the break-in".
A number of theories have been advanced for the break-in, one of which is that it was designed to test security at the prison with a view to springing prisoners in the future. One of the main concerns of prison staff at Wheatfield is that this break-in was part of a plan to spring nine republican prisoners who were moved there recently. The view has also been advanced that the break-in may be related to the fact that one of the inmates, who was connected with the £130 million Urlingford drugs sting, has been reportedly targeted for assassination by a major drugs baron who lost millions in that operation.
Is that story correct and, if so, why has it been concealed? Has any Garda investigation been initiated as a result and, if so, has anybody been charged? What steps have been taken to increase security at this prison?
The Deputy should be writing detective stories.
If this story is correct, then the failure of the Minister for Justice to be transparent and accountable has deprived her of any last vestige of fitness for office. Perhaps the explanation is that criminals are so afraid of being on our dangerous streets they are now breaking into prisons. Perhaps criminals have such a relaxed time in prisons that their mates are trying to break in to join them. The food is good, they have free television and study facilities and they also get paid. The prison system is now so open that prisoners can come and go as they please. Perhaps the Minister for Justice might consider a radical policy departure and order the doors to be locked and the cameras to be switched on.
They wanted a winter break.
There is no basis to the reports which have been circulating in the media and elsewhere regarding this matter. While it is the case that from time to time incidents occur within the prisons and elsewhere involving prisoners, it seems that any story relating to the prisons, however outlandish, tends to be given the widest possible exposure in some sensationalist areas of the media and by headline seeking politicians.
It was not denied.
There have, for example, been many instances of individual long-term prisoners allegedly being spotted at locations in the community. Such fictitious events have regularly found their way into certain newspapers, as have totally inaccurate reports of incidents alleged to have occurred inside and in some cases outside some of the prisons and places of detention. The press office of the Department of Justice receives numerous queries about the prisons from the press, the wider media and the public on a daily basis. While the Department is only too happy to assist, it is the case that a significant percentage of such queries have little or no basis in fact, are widely exaggerated or are untrue.
The incident referred to by the Deputy falls broadly into the latter category. There was no such break-in at the place of detention, Wheatfield. On the morning of 12 November 1996 the gate leading to the adjacent vacant site was discovered to be open. There were gale force winds on the night of 11 November 1996.
Howling winds.
Cutting equipment was not used to cut a hole in the gate. Internal gates between the site and the prison next to it were not tampered with. The site and the prison were thoroughly searched on 12 November and nothing was found. There is no evidence that a group of persons made their way into the vacant site and nothing to suggest that the perimeter of the prison was breached. Security at Wheatfield was not compromised in any way. It is now considered possible that the gate was pushed in by the wind, not by an intruder. The gate has since been secured.
I advise Deputy O'Dea to write detective stories as he seems to be good at that.
It is an open prison.
What force was the gale?
There is a lot more than wind driving the Deputy at present.
Deputy O'Keeffe should not interrupt when the Chair is about to make an announcement. I will not tolerate that.
I apologise.