Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 28 April 2022
Public Accounts Committee
2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 24 - Justice
Vote 21 - Prisons
9:30 am
Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I will turn now to consider compensation and legal costs, specifically table 6.2 in the document relating to Vote 21. I am struck by the number of claims that have been made by prisoners for injury and other actions involving prisoners. There are 445 claims of that kind and more than €2 million has been awarded in compensation. There are 107 civil claims for injuries received while on duty and other issues involving prison staff, which is a high number. There are 110 claims through the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal arising out of injuries received by prison staff. Have our guests the figures for recent years that we could use as a comparison? Has that trend increased? The number of prisoner claims seems high. Have those numbers increased or decreased?