Ken Foy

to any kind of relation to the prisoner that was being visited.

So that's expected to make great progress.

And another initiative, I suppose, when they're really trying to tackle and clamp down on drugs within the jail is the use of the prison confidential line.

Every year it's getting more and more calls.

I think this year it's something like so far 150 phone calls to it.

And that's mostly...

parents or partners of prisoners who are inside who have concerns about their loved one getting involved in drugs, whether it's at the higher or lower levels in the jail.

And it's proven as an intelligence tool for the operational side of the prison staff.

It's proven to be a very useful tool.

Yes, and some of them would be among the most connected to some of the most senior and dangerous gangs that we cover up to and including the family gang, the West Dublin family gang.

Jamie Gagan, who we featured quite a bit recently, he would be suspected of having played within the wider system an organisational role in this kind of activity.

So I suppose the situation was so serious that there was always cooperation between the Gardaí and the prison service.

But they actually signed, I think it's called a Memorandum of Understanding earlier this year.

And it's really led to a kind of...

a much closer working relationship between the two agencies in relation to this problem.

That's kind of the thing that they're... Well, I think, I believe the Gardaí would always be made aware of drug situations, of any significance within the jails.

But I think the ultimate aim of this plan is, with the sharing of intelligence at a high level, is the hope that these drones are going to ultimately, sooner rather than later, be stopped at source.

Yeah.

That they don't end up getting into the jails in the first place.

Drone pilots are called, yeah.