Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

My first concern as Minister for Justice and Law Reform is public safety. In that regard the fact that the number of serious criminals behind bars serving two years' imprisonment or more increased by over 600 between 2007 and 2009 is a cause of commendation of An Garda Síochána whose vigilance has resulted in the arrest and successful prosecution of these offenders. This trend has been continuing in 2010.

This sudden and unexpectedly large increase has, however, put a lot of pressure on the prison system and there will be problems before sufficient new prison spaces can be constructed and brought into operation. I emphasise that more than 80% of the sentenced prisoner population in custody are serving sentences of 12 months or more. It would, therefore, be grossly misleading to suggest that overcrowding is caused by imprisonment of minor offenders or that the problem can be resolved overnight by greater use of alternatives to custody.

The Irish Prison Service has been engaged in an extensive programme of investment in prisons infrastructure which has involved both the modernisation of the existing estate and the provision of extra prison spaces. Since 1997, close to 1,800 new prison spaces have come on stream in the prison system. These include the new prisons in Castlerea, the midlands and Cloverhill, the Dóchas Centre and new accommodation in Limerick, Portlaoise and Castlerea prisons and at the open centres in Shelton Abbey and Loughan House. By any standard this is a significant level of investment aimed at modernising and enhancing the facilities we can provide to our prison population.

Current projects will see in excess 200 prison spaces provided in the short term by means of the opening of a new block in Wheatfield. Also in the short term, work is due to commence on converting an administrative building on the Dóchas site into a new accommodation block. This accommodation will provide approximately 50 spaces later this year. In addition, we hope to proceed in late 2010 with a new accommodation block in the Portlaoise-Midlands prisons complex which will provide 300 prison spaces in the medium term.

The Government is fully committed to developing a new prison campus at Thornton Hall, County Dublin, to replace the entire Mountjoy Prison campus. The new prison facility will provide accommodation for 1,400 cells with operational flexibility to accommodate up to 2,200 in a range of security settings. The development is now proceeding on a phased basis and will, I believe, provide accommodation that is comparable with best international practice.

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