€1m revenue at tuck shop with captive audience

Justice Minister Alan Shatter has confirmed that the tuck shop at Mountjoy prison is a €1m a year business.

Murderers and some of the country’s most feared criminals are among the shop’s customers — making it a business like no other.

The tuck shop operates a monopoly on the trade of cigarettes, newspapers, sweets, and crisps for the 540-strong prison population and figures show that it is immune to the recession aff-ecting so many other businesses.