Mr. Noel Waters:

To add to what Mr. Donnellan said, if we look at other jurisdictions, we see there is an easy way of changing the ratio. One can build very large prisons with perhaps 2,000 prisoners, as we have seen with the privatised facilities in our neighbouring jurisdiction, with very few staff and mostly automated systems. However, that is not the Irish way. We operate on the basis of having prisons located in and served by the local community. Families of prisoners have committed no crime and need to be able to visit their loved ones. Culturally, our position is much more in keeping with the Nordic model of smaller numbers, which does bring a cost with it. That is broadly our policy.