Gilligan's island

Notorious crime boss John Gilligan appears eager to give popular economists George Lee and David McWilliams a run for their money! Gilligan has put together a list of cutback measures that, he claims, will enable the prison system to save up to €50million for the country’s depleted coffers, Hot Press can exclusively reveal.

In what’s probably best described as a complete wind-up, Ireland’s most infamous gangster sent me a letter this week outlining some of his fiscal hypothesises on how inmates and prison authorities can play their part in fighting the recession.
“The whole country is in a recession now. There’s basically not enough money and there’s jobs getting lost here and jobs getting lost there. So, we all have to chip in. It’s our patriotic duty. My ideas would lessen the taxpayers’ burden,” proffers Gilligan.
Gilligan insists that the recession isn’t currently being felt in Portlaoise Prison. However, he believes inmates should make a symbolic gesture to their compatriots on the outside by offering to slash their daily allowance in half.
“I tell you what I think – I think all the prisoners should give back a euro a day. I get €2, so why don’t I forgo €1 a day just to help – you know what I mean? I’d cut my daily allowance in half to help lessen the recession. If the politicians are willing to take a pay cut, we’ll take a cut too. But perhaps the politicians should be willing to take a bigger cut than 10%. They should take a cut that’s significant rather than something that’s just a meaningless gesture.”
Gilligan supports the recent opinion poll, which called for a General Election. He believes the electorate should be given the opportunity to vote in a new government, with a fresh mandate to tackle the recession.
“If I had a horse that ran as bad as this government are running things I’d put him out of his misery!” says Gilligan.
As the old adage goes, it takes one to know one – and Gilligan, who was dubbed ‘Factory John’ for his prowess in robbing huge quantities from industrial estates, say he is firmly pointing the finger of blame at the banking sector for the financial crisis.
“It’s all because all the big boys paid themselves too much and gave bonuses to themselves for lending back money to each other,” he fumes.
If released, Gilligan says he would relish the opportunity to help quell the crisis in the banking sector. “I would fancy the chairman’s job at the Anglo Irish Bank. I would sort out the problems. To tell you the truth, that’s why I never had my money in the banks in the first place. I made a wise decision by not putting my money in the bank. I never trusted the banks and I was proved right on that one,” Gilligan writes.
Currently serving a massive 20-year sentence for allegedly masterminding a massive multimillion euro cannabis operation, the crime boss says he now wants to sit down with the authorities to discuss ways to dramatically slash Irish prison costs.
According to the latest figures, the average prisoner costs the taxpayers €267 a day to keep locked up – more than bed and breakfast at a five star hotel in Dublin. With his tongue firmly placed in his cheek, Gilligan says the most effective solution to ease the burden on the taxpayers would be to release inmates early.
“It’s costing a fortune. Honestly, this is a good idea for the country,” Gilligan maintains. “They won’t allow anybody out on TR (temporary release) because there’s uproar over it. But because everybody’s in a recession, people are now saying, ‘Well, I’m not paying my fecking tax to keep prisoners in jail. Sure, they don’t live around me. I don’t care about them! Blah blah!’ So, it’s a good time for prisoners to argue our points.”
Gilligan has been making the case to the authorities that certain male prisoners should be entitled to a third remission instead of the conventional 25%. As reported in Hot Press back in January, up until recently The Prison Act of 1947 – which amazingly was still legally valid until 2007 – stipulated that female prisoners were entitled to a third remission while a male inmate could only seek a reduction of quarter of his sentence for ‘good behaviour’.
While that anti-male discrimination has been rectified going into the future, with all prisoners – regardless of their sex – now having a right to remission of only one-quarter of their prison sentence, Gilligan’s lawyer Giovanni Di Stefano says females imprisoned prior to 2007 are still entitled to the one third-remission. This, he argues, is clearly discriminatory. Di Stefano is now seeking the same entitlement for all male prisoners incarcerated prior to the 2007 changes in prison regulations.
“If the government gave prisoners a third remission it would make spaces in jail,” Gilligan says. “And they are trying to open new prisons here and they haven’t got the staff for it. It would cut costs and save millions. The women prisoners are entitled to a third remission under the 1947 Act. So, shouldn’t we all be equal under the law? Giovanni, who’ll get my support when he runs in the EU elections this summer, is looking after this legal challenge for us. If they gave the third remission to us men – those who are entitled to it – it would save the taxpayers a considerable amount of money. There should be equality amongst men and women prisoners.
“I reckon they would easily save €50 million. They are saying it’s costing €200,000 a year to keep us here in Portlaoise and €120,000 in other prisons. There’s 4,000 people in the Irish prisons, right? If you give a third remission you’re getting another month a year off – so it would work out that 400 people would get out for that particular year.
“That’s 400 extra people getting out, so to speak. Well, if it’s costing €150,000 to keep each one of them, well you multiply that by 400. What’s that? €6 million or something, is it? It’s a lot. I could pay my CAB bill if I had that type of money!
“A few hundred would get out and they’d have a few more hundred cells. A new jail in the recession is crazy. But if they gave the people the remission that they are entitled to – it’s not a bonus, it’s just what they are entitled to – they’d easily get 500 new spaces and there would be no need to open a new jail. They’d save millions.”
Naturally, Gilligan believes he should be entitled to the third remission, which he estimates would save the State a small fortune – and see him being released tomorrow.
“If I get the third remission instead of the quarter remission it would mean I’d get an extra month off for every year. That means I would get 20 months off. This would save the taxpayers nearly €400,000. It’s a lot of money. There’s other fellas in here on 12 years and it would save them doing the last year in jail. It would save millions. It would also save on overtime and save on everything else like electricity bills, food bills. It would save, save, save.
“Years ago the English gave remission to ease the costs. When the prisons were overburdened there, a judge ruled they were to get ‘remission off remission!’ It took the pressure off the system.”
Meanwhile, Gilligan dismisses a recent story about how some €35,000 was pumped into new gym equipment for the high security Portlaoise Prison. “We are getting no new gym. They simply haven’t got staff to run it, as 100 old officers have retired and it would be too much money to get new guys to run it,” he claims.
Gilligan has some other unorthodox thoughts on how to generate money for the Irish economy. “They should legalise hash and I would be able to get it in for them. Also, I think every euro – with no exception – should be taxed and that way every one is paying their equal share – like we all do with the tax you pay on petrol. With road tax, if you use roads more than others you should pay more for using it. Why should somebody pay the same if they use something less?” he conlcudes.