Republican protest costs £138,000
TAXPAYERS will foot a £138,000 bill to repair damage caused by a republican protest at HMP Maghaberry.
The bill was incurred as a result of a protest by Real IRA, Continuity IRA and INLA members in the jail.
Community workers from Londonderry were part of the Joint Facilitation Group (JFG) that helped broker an end to the protest on August 12.
Justice Minister David Ford stated: “The refurbishment following the damage caused by the protest at Roe House in Maghaberry Prison is ongoing. It is estimated that when complete it will have cost £138,000.”
He revealed the information in response to a query by DUP MLA Lord Morrow.
The Minister also revealed that a new search building is being installed to facilitate searches of separated prisoners returning from their visits at a cost estimated at just under £100,000.
Asked about the cost of the dialogue to end the prison protest the Minister said: “Discussions with prisoners during the recent protest in Roe House in Maghaberry Prison were facilitated by the JFG.
“The JFG was comprised of representatives from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Peter Bunting), Ráth Mór (Conal McFeely) and the Dialogue Advisory Group (Dr. Ram Manikkalingam).
“The cost of facilitating the discussions, including the travel costs for the facilitators, were met by the JFG; consequently the Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS) does not hold any details of where the facilitators travelled from.
“However NIPS did provide some refreshments and hospitality throughout the discussions the cost of which amounted to a total of £64.”
