Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 20 March 2025
167. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Justice the number of prisoners per annum in Cork Prison from 2020 to 2024, in tabular form; the measures being taken to tackle capacity issues; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12430/25]
View answerThe Irish Prison Service must accept into custody all people committed to Cork Prison by the Courts. As such, the Irish Prison Service has no control over the numbers committed to custody at any given time.
Where the number of people in custody exceeds the maximum capacity in any prison, officials in the Irish Prison Service make every effort to deal with this through a combination of inter-prison transfers and structured Temporary Release. The legislative basis for temporary release is set out in the Criminal Justice Act 1960, as amended by the Criminal Justice (Temporary Release of Prisoners) Act 2003. Decisions in relation to temporary release are considered on a case by case basis and the safety of the public is paramount when those decisions are made.
A Prison Overcrowding Response Group was established in 2023 to develop proposed actions to address the problem of Irish prisons operating above capacity. The Group comprised of representatives from the Department of Justice, An Garda Síochána, the Irish Prison Service, the Probation Service, and the Courts Service. On foot of a report of this Group, in June 2024, a range of actions was approved and work to implement these actions is ongoing. These include developing new, innovative responses to deliver structured temporary release for suitable prisoners, actions to increase the use of community service as a priority, and advancing legislative changes, to support the delivery of community-based sanctions more generally.
Further, a Working Group was established in the second half of 2024 to further consider future prison capacity needs and to make recommendations on the numbers and types of prison capacity needed out to 2035. The work of this Group will support and inform future developments regarding prison capacity.
The budget for the IPS increased by €79m (18%) in Budget 2025 to €525m. The Irish Prison Service capital budget is €53m in 2025, an increase of €22.5m on the original 2024 allocation, focused on bringing additional prison spaces into the system.
The Department of Justice is engaging with the Irish Prison Service to progress plans to bring on stream accommodation to support the target of 1,500 additional prison places as set out under the Programme for Government. In recent years, capacity across the prison estate has been increased by in excess of 300 new spaces with over 100 of these added in the last 12 months and 50 to come onstream very soon.
The Irish Prison Service aims to recruit 300 prison officers in 2025, in addition to the 271 prison officers recruited in 2024. An additional €6.2m has been provided to fund 130,000 additional staff hours in our prisons.
The number of prisoners per annum in Cork Prison from 2020 to 2024 is contained in the table below. The Irish Prison Service publishes detailed statistical information on a monthly basis and this information is available on their website, www.irishprisons.ie, at: www.irishprisons.ie/information-centre/statistics-information/snapshot-statistics/
|
Year |
Number of Persons* |
Number of Committals |
Daily Average in Custody |
|
2024 |
852 |
985 |
335 |
|
2023 |
860 |
986 |
306 |
|
2022 |
714 |
829 |
262 |
|
2021 |
695 |
808 |
255 |
|
2020 |
744 |
873 |
271 |
*An individual can be committed on more than one occasion in the given year.
