Footballs for prisoners cost taxpayers €80k in past 2 years

Prisoners’ kickabouts have cost taxpayers more than €80,000 on footballs alone in the past two years.

Figures from Prison Service show the cost of new balls has increased from almost €36,000 in 2010 to nearly €46,000 last year.

The expenditure was part of a €770,000 sports budget for the prison system in 2010 and 2011.

Fine Gael’s Denis Naughten slammed the expenditure as “bizarre” and said it was another example of “wanton waste” in the public service.

A breakdown of the football budget shows:

n€19,691 spent in Cloverhill prison (€12,431 in 2010 and €7,260 in 2011);

n€18,819 in Cork prison (€8,776 in 2010 and €10,043 in 2011);

n€16,193 in Limerick prison (€5,854 in 2010 and €10,339 in 2011),

n€5,876 in Mountjoy prison (€436 in 2010 and €5,440 in 2011),

In Dochas Women’s prison, meanwhile, €1,343 was spent on footballs last year.

In relation to overall expenditure on sports equipment, more than €126,000 was spent in Mountjoy over the last two years. The next biggest pay-outs went to Wheatfield prison (€89,400), Cork prison (€77,355) and Limerick and Cloverhill prisons (both around €66,000).

While the total football budget has gone up (from €35,851 to €45,702) the overall sports budget has dropped from €480,441 in 2010 to €287,783 in 2011.

“It is bizarre in the current economic climate how so much money is spent on sports equipment and the amount being spent on footballs is astonishing,” said Mr Naughten. He was given the information in response to a parliamentary question.

He said while footballs might suffer wear and tear, he found it incredible such money was being spent every year. He said one reason could be the use of balls to smuggle contraband, such as drugs and mobile phones.

In such situations balls are kicked out over perimeter walls, filled with contraband and kicked back in.

“The point of this is what is wrong, I think, with the public service as a whole,” the FG TD said. “The figure could be dismissed as small, but where there is wanton waste it has to be tackled.”

He said: “There is going to be a lot of grinding of teeth in the budget and people might be more likely to accepts cuts if they see money is valued and respected in the public service, which is taxpayers’ money.”