Patrick Costello
Ceist:19. Deputy Patrick Costello asked the Minister for Justice when existing unpublished centre reports (details supplied) will be published. [17832/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 23 April 2024
Ceisteanna (19)
Freagraí scríofa
As the Deputy is aware, the Office of the Inspector of Prisons (OIP) was established under the Prisons Act 2007 and is independent in how it carries out its functions. The Inspector's role is to carry out regular inspections of prisons.
The Inspector's three day monitoring report of the Dóchas Centre was received in my office in August 2020, and it was deemed possible following legal advice to publish this in January of this year. I requested the Inspector to carry out an investigation into matters arising in the Dóchas Centre, under section 31(2) of the Prisons Act and this investigation report was submitted in February 2022. In addition, a supplementary report which I requested in relation to matters arising from the section 31(2) investigation was received in July 2022.
It was always intended that these reports would be reviewed for publication together but, based on legal advice received by the Department from the Office of the Attorney General, it is not yet possible to publish these reports at this time.
Consideration of these reports is ongoing and I am therefore not in a position to publish them or comment further on their content. I intend to publish these reports as soon as it is practicable to do so.
As the Deputy will be aware, this Government is continuing to invest in modernising and upgrading the prison infrastructure itself and the range of supports and services provided to people in custody.
This includes securing increased funding for recruitment of prison officers and healthcare staff and a renewed focus on education and training.
Last year I opened a state of the art women’s prison in limerick and in addition to bringing on stream approximately 150 new prison spaces this year, I have secured additional capital funding of €49.5m to progress 4 new capital projects.
I look forward to joining the Prison Officers Association later this week at their annual conference to discuss how we can continue to support them in their work, including by working with people in custody to reduce reoffending and make our communities safer.