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

Ms Caron McCaffrey:

Of the 150-acre site, we have had a look to see what we would potentially like to keep for future development and what might be available. We have identified 112 acres of the site as available for future development and we are looking to maintain 40 acres, as the Secretary General mentioned earlier. We have very limited availability to build on the existing footprint of the prison estate. We are putting a new wing on Limerick Prison at the moment. There is potential for wings to be added to some of our existing prisons, should capital money allow, but we do not have any land on which we would be on a position to build a larger prison and I suppose we-----