The Government's commitment to introduce a drug-free regime into the prison system will be at least one year behind schedule, it has emerged. Provisions for mandatory drug testing were published yesterday as part of new prison rules.
But the Department of Justice has confirmed the rules will not come into effect until November.
In September 2004 Minister for Justice Michael McDowell said mandatory drug testing would be in place at the start of 2005.
Yesterday he defended the proposals, and described the alternative of needle exchanges suggested by the Irish Penal Reform Trust as "Alice in Wonderland politics".
"I regard the presence of drugs in prisons, particularly intravenous drugs, as a complete calamity and a disaster and not something to be just simply managed by needle exchange or sterilising fluid availability, but something that has to be challenged and ended."
He planned independent prison audits to identify the prevalence of drugs in each institution from data gathered from random drug testing.
He aimed to "work rapidly towards drug-free prisons" although he acknowledged there were challenges in achieving this.
But he rejected the idea that drug use was a fact of life in prisons and that needle exchange programmes should be implemented to make drug use safer.
"I don't believe in that for one minute. I think that that's an approach that would be a resignation matter for a minister for justice."
Under the new rules any inmate, on the authority of a prison governor, would have to give a sample to staff for testing.
The Irish Prison Service's expenditure on prescription medicine per inmate reached €821 in 2003, the last year for which figures are available.
In its annual report for 2003 the prison service notes that this is "considerably higher than the corresponding figure from other prison services and significantly higher than that for a similar population in the community".
Around 20 per cent of the State's 3,000 prisoners receive the heroin substitute methadone. But significant quantities of heroin, cocaine, cannabis and other drugs continue to reach inmates.
Drugs are sometimes thrown over the walls of prisons, smuggled in by visitors or brought in - often concealed internally - by new committals.
Under the new rules a prisoner will have to give a sample of urine, saliva, hair or samples of fluid collected by swab from around the gums. If a prisoner tests positive he or she can be sanctioned in a number of ways including a period in solitary confinement, loss of privileges or loss of seven days remission.
The new prison rules will replace the current set which date back to 1947. As well as the provisions on drug testing the use of observation, or padded, cells is clearly set down.
The rules state that the cells are for the protection of prisoners and in no way should be used as a form of punishment. The rules also repeal a number of outdated regulations in the current set of regulations.
These include provisions which allowed some inmates to have their own bedding and other furnishings in their cells, have an assistant perform their chores and consume alcohol while in prison. The use of punishments such as a restricted diet or corporal punishment have also been removed.
Rules on the roles of staff and of prison visiting bodies have also been set out. The new regulations also deal with all other areas of prison life including education and prisoner accommodation.