Ms Caron McCaffrey:

I might come in on the prisons question. We have two open prisons and one maximum security prison, and the rest of our prisons are really one-size-fits-all prisons with medium levels of security. We have been working on a prisoner progression plan, which would differentiate what each prison offers and what cohort of prisoners can be accommodated within each prison. There are issues, such as those relating to protection prisoners, that impact on the ability of other prisoners to access services in prisons, so we are potentially looking at cohorting in one prison prisoners who are really engaged in work training and cohorting those who are really engaged in education in another. We have continued the investment in the prison infrastructure. We are currently finishing the building of a new wing in Limerick Prison, which is a significant investment, and a stand-alone female prison, which is really welcome for the estate.

Our prison population was increasing just before Covid, between 2017 and 2020. In March 2020, we were full, so there has certainly been a respite in the context of reducing the number of committals over the Covid period. As I mentioned, a penal policy review is looking at what else can be done to arrest the growth in the prison population, and a significant capital budget of more than €35 million is available to us, which we continue to use to invest in modernising our infrastructure.