On Tuesday's 'Déise Today', Maria was chatting to Fiona Ni Chinneide. Fiona is the acting executive director of 'The Irish Penal Reform Trust'.
It has been reported that the Irish prison service has spent more than 260,000 euro on 'open university' education for 87 inmates in the past two years. Some of the notable inmates taking up this are reportedly wife killer Joe O'Reilly who is training to be a chef while killer Graham Dwyer has sought permission to study for a doctoral degree.
Maria put it to Fiona that she had no problem with people that had committed their first crime and were using this system in order to better their lives. However, as she saw it with Joe O'Reilly and Graham Dwyer, that these "serious crimes" should not allow them to do these courses. Fiona has said that no matter what crime someone has done, that deciding that someone should not have access to these courses is a "deprivation of service".
Maria, however, thinks that the "more serious of a crime" that you commit that you have fewer rights. Fiona though says that this is something that cannot be done as that would be breaching human rights laws.
If you want to listen to the full interview you can do that here!
https://soundcloud.com/wlrfmwaterford/deise-today-12th-march-2019-should-the-prison-service-be-paying-for-prison-education
It was a packed show on 'Déise Today' with Fianna Fail councillor Eamon Quinlan in the studio to talk about the anti-social behaviour that is in the city centre and what he thinks can be done in order to quell it, Maria also talked to Sinn Fein TD David Cullinane about the recent North Quays development and the recent reports that University Hospital Waterford will be split from University Hospital Cork and instead be linked to University of Dublin.
You can listen to the full version of 'Déise Today' here!
https://soundcloud.com/wlrfmwaterford/deise-today-tuesday-12th-march-2019
