Prison visits net politicians €3,600 extra a year

MORE than 60 Fianna Fáil and Progressive Democrats officials have been appointed to lucrative positions on prison visiting committees, it has emerged.

Members are on average clocking up expenses of €3,600 each, or €650,000 in total, as the majority live more than 100 miles away from the prisons they inspect.

The appointment of a new Inspector of Prisons, who has taken over many of the committee's functions, has sparked calls for the committees to be scrapped.

Fine Gael senator Sheila Terry said Justice Minister Michael McDowell must justify the existence of the 16 committees.

While she accepted that successive governments have appointed their own officials to the committees, Ms Terry said it was time for an end to political appointments:

"The committees are venal in composition and their membership reads like a roll call of Fianna Fáil and Progressive Democrat activists from almost every corner of the country."

Of the 180 members of the prison visiting committees around the country, at least 60 are:

Fianna Fáil or Progressive Democrat councillors;

Previously Fianna Fáil or Progressive Democrat local election candidates;

Former Fianna Fáil or Progressive Democrat TDs;

Ministers of State.

The committees were established in 1925 to report any cases of alleged abuse, and to ensure conditions in prisons were clean, fair and just.

However, there are question marks over their effectiveness, as they have reported just one serious complaint to the Justice Minister Michael McDowell over the last five years.

However, Mr McDowell said he has taken steps to ensure new appointments were located much closer to the prisons they are required to inspect.

"The time should be gone when anybody would write to me and say, as one person did to one of my predecessors, a certain local authority member wanted a position as far away from the other end of the country as possible," the minister said.

He also said he would examine ways of keeping the costs of committees down, such as capping expenses or providing members a flat annual fee, to dispel any notion that the committees were a "gravy train".

However, Mr McDowell insisted that committee members were providing a valuable public service and said the system should be maintained.

Mr Justice Kinlen, who was appointed as the first Inspector of Prisons in 2002, is currently reviewing the prison visiting committee system and will issue recommendations to the minister.

He is required to inspect and report on prisons and places of detention, and investigate any specific issue at the request of the minister.