Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

What I got last year allowed me to increase staff numbers significantly but there was a significant increase last year in our capital spend. This year was a step change but last year was also a significant increase in the overall capital spend but also for the first time in many years, we have significantly increased the number of prison officers. We have continuous recruitment campaigns that are ongoing, which allows us to recruit the staff. I do not think we can ever predict the number of prisoners we are going to have at any given time but we have a sense. It has been in and around 5,000 for the past number of months. Last year was under 5,000 but still high in the 4,000s.