'NEW SPACES WON'T GO TO THOSE REFUSED BAIL'

The Minister for Justice has said he does not believe new prison spaces
will be filled by those refused bail. Mr O'Donoghue repeated the
Government's position on the result of the bail referendum, saying the laws
could not be implemented until new prison spaces were provided.

He confirmed there had been a record number of prisoners last week, however
he denied that the new places would be filled by those refused bail when
the laws were enforced. "Predicting how many prison spaces one will require
as a result of the bail laws is not an exact science. I don't believe that
the implementation of the bail referendum itself will take up all of the
places. I would be surprised if that happened."

Cloverhill Prison in Clondalkin, due to be completed next year, would be
one of the most important prisons in the State, the Minister said. It would
allow for the removal of remand prisoners from Mountjoy. There would be an
"easing of pressure in the system" and the "whole question of prison
officers' overtime and the ratio of prison officers to prisoners would have
to be addressed", he said.

The ratio of one officer per prisoner would be lowered to 0.8 officers per
prisoner.

Mr O'Donoghue was speaking after he addressed 144 graduates from the Garda
College in Templemore, including Garda Michael Byrne, the son of Garda
Commissioner Mr Patrick Byrne. Mr O'Donoghue welcomed the 10 per cent drop
in serious crime in the first six months of this year, a result of crime
policies, legislation, the prison-building programme and the appointment of
additional judges. On the Garda overtime budget, he said: "Insofar as
resources are required, I will not be found wanting in asking Government to
provide them."

Further details of the breakdown of the crime figures across all the Garda
divisions emerged yesterday. They showed the highest drops of 27 per cent
had been in both Dublin East and Cork North in the first six months of the
year. Outside Dublin crime rates rose by 11 per cent in Limerick, 12 per
cent in Clare, 14 per cent in Longford/Westmeath, 2 per cent in
Louth/Meath, 10 per cent in Mayo and 21 per cent in Roscommon and Galway
East.