I propose to take Questions Nos. 347 to 349, inclusive, together.
I can inform the Deputy that no prisoner telephone calls were destroyed during the capital works at the new Cork Prison as a result of the building works.
The policy of the Irish Prison Service in relation to the retention of telephones calls provides that the retention period for recorded phone calls on the Irish Prison Service Storage Area Network is three years. After three years, recorded calls (other than those relating to an incident that is deemed active) shall be deleted from the Storage Area Network. The reason for this policy is the high cost of retention of and access to prisoner telephone calls. This Policy has been in place since May 2015.
The records for the person referred to by the Deputy were deleted week beginning the 23 November 2015.
I am advised by the Irish Prison Service that on the 23 November 2015 there was one outstanding request by the person referred to for "any recordings of telephone conversations between him and his solicitor during a specified period of time in 2009" which was at that time the subject of clarification between the Irish Prison Service and the person concerned. However, as advised to his solicitor, due to legal privilege, it is not Irish Prison Service policy to record telephone conversations between solicitors and clients on designated phone lines. The recordings that were destroyed would not have included any phone calls to persons who were nominated as solicitors. There were no phone calls in existence or destroyed which corresponded to the clarified request.