Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North-Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have a question about Cork Prison. It is something I have raised with the Minister privately over the past few weeks. I have long lobbied for an increase in the prison capacity that we have. As the Minister alluded to earlier, our population is increasing anyway. It is an evitable consequence of that. In Cork Prison, the last figure I have is that it was at 122% capacity a couple of weeks back. That is not sustainable, fair or safe. In terms of additional capacity at Cork Prison, we are talking about an extension to the existing prison, because there are political detractors locally who are trying to make a political issue out of this to say we are trying to build another new prison. Will the Minister clarify for the record and for people at home how advanced plans are?