Ms Caron McCaffrey:

We have seen a significant increase in recent years. Prisoner numbers started increasing from 2018. They were on a downward trajectory from 2011 to 2018 but have been increasing since then. We have over 4,500 prisoners in custody today, which is a huge increase since January when the courts opened, when we had just over 4,200. Regrettably, we have people sleeping on mattresses on the floor in a number of our prisons. That is very disappointing and quite disturbing for us because we are very clear on our requirement to give dignity of care and rehabilitation.

We are giving consideration to a capital strategy at the moment. We have been introducing additional accommodation. We have just completed a new wing in Limerick prison which will give us an extra 90 male spaces. We are hoping to open that fully by the end of this month. We have also built a purpose-built female prison in Limerick prison which is a huge improvement on the conditions in which we had been keeping women in Limerick. We have plans to introduce modular accommodation in our open centres this year. Again, we are being pragmatic, asking what we can do and what we can do quickly to give us additional spaces. We have built, are continuing to build and we have plans for the future to continue to make sure we have the appropriate spaces available to us.

On Senator Lynn Ruane's project, those who know Senator Ruane will know that she is determined. She is engaging and has attracted philanthropic funding to support this project, which is amazing. That is going through the grant process the moment but it is imminent. We had a round table discussion just before Christmas, with all of the key people in the room. There is huge energy and a huge level of excitement around the project. It is great that Trinity College is on board with its psychology service as well.