I thank the Minister for staying to answer this Adjournment Debate. As the Curragh Prison is in my constituency and I see it almost every day I pass through the Curragh, it was natural for people to come to me regarding their concerns at the closure which the Minister recently proposed.
The representations come from three different sources. Prison officers are deeply concerned about what will happen their position, where they will be transferred, the criteria to be used, the timescale and so on. Almost all of them have families and they see problems arising because they have mortgages and have made a commitment to the Curragh and to the prison, all of which could change within a few weeks.
The educational staff attached to Kildare VEC are also concerned. There are five full-time staff members, two temporary full-time and eight part-time. They have made a great effort to ensure their work has therapeutic and educational benefits for the prison inmates. This has been successful in that 91% of the inmates are involved in educational and therapeutic classes.
Last but not least are those who have relatives in the prison. It is always sad to see someone at a hospital or a prison but there is perhaps nothing more sad than to see people waiting to visit prison. One can fully understand their concerns as to what will happen. They derive comfort from the enclosed nature of the Curragh Prison because their family members are receiving educational and therapeutic benefits, but they wonder what will happen when their relatives are moved to a different prison, including the level or privacy and protection they can expect. That is my major concern.
Last Thursday, the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment told the House that the prison may not close. I understood her to say the Minister's stance is a negotiating position in the context of the ongoing union-management problem of excessive overtime. If that is the case I ask the Minister to give a clear undertaking tonight that the problem encountered by the prison staff, the educational staff, the inmates and their families is not being used as a ploy or a pawn in the game of trying to resolve this problem. If it is to be used in that way it will be a sad state of affairs. I doubt that was the Minister's intention in his proposal to close the prison. I hope in his reply he will address my concerns about what will happen if the present prison inmates are integrated in the midlands or Portlaoise, or wherever, and what will happen to the educational staff whose contract is with the Kildare VEC.
The prison officers are deeply concerned because they have made a commitment to the Curragh Prison and their families are attached to the neighbourhood or the catchment area of the prison. They have developed social and family links there as well as commitments to building houses and paying mortgages and so on. I hope that in giving his response the Minister will offer some way of alleviating those concerns.