I wish to advise the Deputy that there are places available in prisons for people with a physical disability. There are currently 16 adapted cells available throughout the prison estate with a further two coming on stream with the opening of the new Cork Prison in early 2016. In addition the original design of the Dochas Centre lends itself to disabled use with minor adjustments if required. Disabled cells put into new prison accommodation wings are priced as part of an overall refurbishment and as such do not have any unit cost recorded.
However prison is not a suitable environment for persons with certain medical conditions and/or certain severe disabilities.
The Irish Prison Service provide a Primary Care Service for all prisoners in their charge, and all efforts are made to meet the needs of all prisoners. When medical requirements or the severity of the disability are such that medical advice is that prison is not a suitable environment, alternatives such as release to an appropriate medical facility, or to another more suitably environment are considered. The statutory basis for transferring such persons to a non prison environment is the Criminal Justice Act 1960 as amended. That provision allows conditions to be imposed including conditions on where a person may be. Such persons may be subject to supervision or not, depending on the circumstances. A person who breaches a condition is deemed to be unlawfully at large. I am not in a position at present to give all the detailed information sought by the Deputy but I can say that on 7 December, there were 429 prisoners serving their sentence in the community, the majority of whom will be living at home. The majority of these would not have been released from prison due to a physical disability or medical condition.