A call has been made for the Government to immediately end the use of soldiers for security at Portlaoise prison and to stop “wasting €1.9 million on a small number of prisoners who could easily be held securely under the normal prison regime”.
Fianna Fáil TD Éamon Ó Cúiv said circumstances had changed “dramatically” since the Army was first used more than 50 years ago to provide security at the prison for republican paramilitaries.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin told him that the ending of security by the Defence Forces as an aid to the civil power “is the direction of travel”.
Soldiers continue to provide 24-hour security at Ireland’s highest security prison, at a cost last year of approximately €1.9 million. Mr Martin said this “includes the costs of escorting prisoners to medical appointments and court hearings outside the prison”.
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But the numbers of soldiers involved had dropped since the plan was first mooted almost two years ago because of the dwindling number of paramilitary prisoners. The prison’s E Wing, which is used to house republican paramilitaries, had just 13 out of 75 beds occupied in July 2022.
During Defence question time in the Dáil Mr Martin, who is Minister for Defence said the report of the Commission on the Defence Forces recommended “standing down” a number of projects the Defence Forces were involved in “which no longer seem justified in the current security situation”.
He said there had been consultations with the Department of Justice and “a reduced level of deployment is now in place commensurate with the assessed threat levels”. Traditionally some 100 Army personnel were involved in the prison but that is now down to 16 soldiers, and will be reduced further on a phased basis, he added.
Mr Ó Cuív said that when he met the Tánaiste about the issue in December 2020 “there were 29 prisoners in the E block in Portlaoise. At this moment there are fewer than 10. By mid-summer it could be half that again.”
Mr Ó Cuív said this was a “radically different situation than the situation that caused the Army to be deployed there in the first place”. He believed there were no prisoners awaiting trial and some prisoners were nearing the end of their sentences, with one due for release next month.
“We are talking about a small number of people,” he said. “There are all sorts of other prisoners in the prisons who are high risk. It seems amazing that this small number of prisoners needs the Army to secure them when nobody else in the whole prison system, who are in for very significant crimes, needs this.”
The Galway West TD who has long campaigned on prison conditions and prisoners’ rights welcomed ongoing reviews of the situation but he believed it was time to deal with the situation and to stop “wasting €1.9 million on a small number of prisoners who could easily be held securely under the normal prison regime”.
The Tánaiste told him it was the ultimate intention to have the prison authorities deal with security and that the aid to civil power requirement would no longer exist.
“That would be the fervent hope of all of us in that regard, and that is the direction of travel.”
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