Parliamentary Question: Drugs in Prisons

4th November 2003

595. Mr. Cuffe asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he will provide the evidence on which the Prison Service is basing its proposed policy for compulsory drug testing of prisoners; and his views on concerns identified in countries such as Canada, Germany and Switzerland, among others, that compulsory drug testing of prisoners leads directly to increasing the number of prisoners choosing to inject drugs rather than ingesting them by other methods and thereby directly increasing the risk of HIV and hepatitis C transmission in prisons. [25415/03]

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Mr. McDowell): The programme for Government gave a commitment to tackling the issue of heroin use in Irish prisons. This includes treatment and rehabilitation, supply reduction and the introduction of compulsory drug testing for prisoners where necessary.

I am satisfied that mandatory drug testing can play an important role in the overall strategy for tackling the scourge of heroin use among prisoners. Mandatory drug testing provides information on trends in drug misuse, enables the identification and referral of drug abusers to treatment programmes, and acts as a deterrent to drug misuse.