Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

There has been a consistent increase in the total prisoner population over recent years. Thanks to the extra resources provided by this Government, the Garda Síochána has been increasingly successful in prosecuting criminals and extra court sittings have resulted in higher committal rates. There are over 1,000 more criminals in prison today than there were in 2006.

I am looking at non-custodial sanctions and taking legislative initiatives to reduce the number of committals to prison for less serious matters such as civil debt and non-payment of fines. However, approximately 80% of convicted prisoners in custody at any one time are in prison for relatively serious offences and are serving sentences of more than 12 months.

Overcrowding in prisons is an international problem and not unique to Ireland. The Irish Prison Service has been engaged in an ongoing extensive programme of investment in prisons infrastructure to modernise and expand our capacity. Since 1997 in excess of 1,670 new prison spaces have been provided. A further 250 spaces will be provided by means of a new block in Wheatfield Prison and the reopening of the separation unit in Mountjoy. Work is also expected to commence this year on a new accommodation block in the Portlaoise Midlands prison complex which will provide 300 prison spaces.

Turning to the issue of overcrowding at Mountjoy specifically, the Government reaffirmed its commitment to developing a new prison campus at Thornton Hall and also approved the launch of a new tendering process for the construction of a more affordable and better value prison campus at Thornton. The aim is to provide good quality regime-focused prison accommodation with appropriate support and rehabilitative facilities for prisoners to prepare them for reintegration into society. The primary purpose of Thornton is to replace the Mountjoy complex, which currently holds over 1,100 prisoners in four institutions on a 20 acre site. Thornton will be a campus development with approximately 1,400 cells on a 130 acre site. The new prison facility will have operational flexibility to accommodate up to 2,200 in a range of security settings.

The tenders for the construction of the access road will be issued in the near future with a tender competition for the construction of the perimeter wall to follow later this year. Work on preparation for the invitation to tender for the construction of the main prison development is under way. Our focus is on replacing the outdated and outmoded accommodation in the Mountjoy complex by the Thornton project. However, that project will not be finalised for some years and in the interim we are providing additional facilities in our other prisons to help relieve the pressure on numbers in Mountjoy Prison.

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