03/12/2012

Dissident Prison Protests Cost Over £1m

The prison service in Northern Ireland has spent over £1m over the past three years on repairing damage caused by dissident republican protests.

The news came as Justice Minister David Ford responded to a question by the DUP’s Alex Easton in a written answer.

The total cost for the three years of the 'dirty' protest is £1,122,720.

A breakdown of the costs shows the amount spent for the year to date from April is £380,200. For the year to April 2012 it was £435,100 and for the previous year it was £307,420.

£446,913 has been spent by the prison service on paying external companies to clean cells in Roe House at Maghaberry prison up October 2012.

That figure was given in a written response to Pat Ramsey last month. It was also revealed that £55,738 was spent on an absorbent compound used to counter the effects of the dirty protest.

At the end of November, dissident republicans announced they would be ceasing all dirty protests at Maghaberry Prison.

The protest started in May 2011 as an objection to strip searches. The prisoners at Maghaberry have called for the implementation of electric scanners to end full body searches.

(IT)

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