New identification procedures for visitors to Mountjoy prison are likely to be extended to other prisons, the Minister of State for Justice, Mr Brian Lenihan said.

The procedures require photo-identification from visitors and sparked a protest in the prison on Monday when 110 prisoners threw their slops on to a prison landing.

Mr Lenihan told Labour's justice spokesman, Mr Joe Costello, that the prison authorities would not give in to the protest. He added that they were introduced to "battle against the supply of illegal drugs" in the prison.

€111m for welfare non-national scheme

The cost of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme for non-nationals in 2002 is expected to be in the region of €111 million, according to statistics released by the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Ms Coughlan.

She told Mr Seán Crowe (SF, Dublin South West) that weekly basic supplementary welfare allowance payments were made to 10,481 families where the head of the household was a non-national, and 6,082 rent supplements were paid to non-nationals.

Overtime pay for prison officers

Overtime pay for prison officers amounted to almost 30 per cent of overall pay costs for the prison service, according to the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell.