asked the Minister for Justice the institutions of penal servitude which still have wood-yards; if it is intended to phase out these and, if so, when.

There are wood-yards in Mountjoy Prison, Limerick Prison and St. Patrick's Institution.

An extensive programme of prison building and redevelopment is in progress at present and an important part of this is the provision of new workshops and the development of new industries and work activities. The cutting and splitting of timber in wood-yards is decreasing according as suitable alternative activities become available. It must be said, however, that the wood-yards have been useful in providing employment for offenders serving sentences of such short duration or whose aptitutes and interests are such that it is not feasible to provide work with a training content for them. The need to provide unskilled work for some persons in custody is expected to remain.

Considerable advances have been made over the past few years in providing employment and training for those in custody. Already a wide range of employment activities has been introduced custody. Already a wide range of employment activities has been introduced and developed to suit various abilities and interests. Activities such as printing, joinery and gardening provide a commercial standard of product and give valuable training opportunities for the people working at them. In the Training Unit at Glengarriff Parade the courses are equivalent to those available at the AnCO training centres and in addition, offenders are helped to develop social skills.

Some form of work training is now available to any offender serving a sentence of 12 months or more who shows reasonable interest and who appears to have the aptitude to benefit from it.

Plans for further developments in this area are now well advanced. On the employment side there will be an expansion predominantly in the engineering, timber and textile activities. In the industrial training area courses in construction and catering will be introduced. These developments will take place in all of the prisons and places of detention.

When does the Minister expect that the wood-yards will cease operation? Will the Minister confirm that he is aware not just that there are problems relating to the question of the usefulness of such work or toil but that there are risks to inmates and staff arising out of the kind of implements used in those wood-yards? They have been the focal point of many problems in the past and I should like the Minister to tell us when we are likely to see the back of them.

I appreciate that the Deputy understands well the problem we are discussing and I should like to tell him that considerable progress was made by my predecessors and myself in bringing about an expansion of facilities needed to provide outlets for the people in prison. I cannot give the Deputy a date, as to when I will say that from that date onwards wood-yards will not be available. If I am allowed to build the new prison at Wheatfield in County Dublin—that is another problem for another day—that will be a step closer to the day when, as far as St. Patricks is concerned, wood-yards will no longer be a part of it. There are many problems over which I do not have any control that would affect ultimately the type of time schedule the Deputy has asked me to impose.

But the Minister is phasing them out?

I am.

6.