Call for more sniffer dogs and handlers

DRUG SMUGGLING:MORE SNIFFER dogs are urgently needed in prisons across the country to prevent the flow of drugs being smuggled into the jails, the Prison Officers Association has said.

The officers say there are only three dogs performing searches on vehicles entering the 14 jails across the Republic. The association’s deputy general secretary Eugene Dennehy said many more dogs were needed.

“We firmly believe that one of the most effective ways of blocking prisoners accessing drugs is a fully effective dog unit and currently we don’t have that,” he said at the closing session of the association’s annual delegate conference in Killarney, Co Kerry.

Mr Dennehy added there was a very high number of vehicles driving in and out of jails every day to deliver food, materials for workshops and other supplies and services.

“There’s a huge gap in the searching system. The dog unit needs to be better structured and there needs to be a significant increase in dogs-searching vehicles; from three to at least 10 or 12.”

He added if the Irish Prison Service was serious about clamping down on drugs in jails they would increase the number of animals immediately. While there were 20 dogs searching visitors going in and out of the jails, having just three dogs checking vehicles was problematic.

Apart from more drugs entering the prison system, those driving vehicles in and out of jails regularly were being put at risk.

Mr Dennehy said the prison gangs behind much of the lucrative prison drugs market were adept at finding out the identities of drivers making deliveries to jails.

Delegates at the Prison Officers Association conference passed a motion calling on the Irish Prison Service to introduce more sniffer dogs and handlers.

The association’s general secretary John Clinton outlined to delegates at the conference the full details of the proposed Croke Park pay deal during a session of debate that was closed to the media.

Delegates voted in favour of the association recommending rejection of the deal to the association’s 3,300 members. A ballot on the deal of those members will now be held with the recommendation that they reject the deal.