Mr. Eoin Carroll:

We did not end up with Thornton Hall. That was the result of the Thornton Hall review group. To be honest, I do not believe we needed a review group to tell us we did not need it. Probably the most pragmatic reason for not developing it was that we could not afford it. Furthermore, it would have led to an increase in the prisoner population of approximately 1,200. The decision was positive. Perhaps I was overly harsh on the report that the committee produced in 2013 because, in effect, many of the recommendations have come through. We now have the community return programme and the community support programme. The community return programme allows somebody to serve the remainder of his or her sentence within the community once he or she has served 50% of it within prison. That was recommended in the report.

There were other aspects of note in the report, including the making of a commitment to reduce the prison population. The director general of the Irish Prison Service has stated this is his objective. At this point, because numbers have levelled of and with an increase last year, I am curious to see how we will continue to reduce prisoner numbers. The 2013 report mentioned increasing remission by up to one third. It is already achievable and no legislation needs to be brought forward. Perhaps a little policy might be required just to clarify what somebody in prison needs to do to achieve it.

The report made recommendations on stopping the use of imprisonment for sentences of less than six months. Certainly, the number in prison on any given day serving a sentence of less than six months has gone down. With the young adult population, however, an analysis of those serving sentences of less than two years shows a ratio of 2:1. I am nervous about mentioning statistics that I do not have in front of me, but they are included in the report. Certainly, a higher proportion of young adults are serving sentences of two years by comparison with older adults. It begs the question as to whether young adults are receiving sentences for offences for which an older adult might not receive the same sentence.