The Fine Gael spokesman on justice, Mr Jim O'Keeffe, said it had been suggested that the killers of Det Garda Jerry McCabe were getting preferential treatment in Castlerea prison.
"They are lording it over other prisoners and set down their own rules and regulations as to who may be in their company. They insist that any food cooked for them is not cooked by certain categories of prisoner, for example those convicted of drugs charges."
In addition, said Mr O'Keeffe, on a daily basis they faxed down their requirements to the local shop and those were delivered to them. Asking the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, if this was correct, Mr O'Keeffe asked why people who were in prison for such "a heinous crime" received preferential treatment.
Mr McDowell said he believed they were held on substantially the same terms as other prisoners. "In an area of free association and dissociation, it is not possible to force prisoners to interact with each other. The regime, effectively, allows groups or sub-groups within the grove to stick to themselves if that is their desire."
He added that the Grove consisted of seven separate houses where inmates lived in a domestic type environment.
"Some of the descriptions of the basic accommodation in this area give a misleading impression of luxury and tend to ignore the reality that the inmates there, as elsewhere in the prison system, are behind prison walls and in secure custody."
Mr McDowell said it was not true prisoners were entitled to order takeaway food.
Mr O'Keeffe said his main concern was the impact of preferential treatment for them on the Garda and prison staff.
"The prison staff are witnessing a situation where, in many ways, these prisoners are lording it over other prisoners."
Mr McDowell said the situation was one which he had inherited.
