Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)

One of the reasons I put down the question was because the figures we got from the parliamentary question were startling in terms of the bed capacity and the current population. Now that the Minister has clarified that it did not include those on temporary release I can understand the reason the figures were so low on that day.

As the Minister stated in his reply, open centres are the type of facility that foster training and education, help develop personal skills and help people make that transition. Under the new five year capital strategy for the Irish Prison Service which is being developed, there will be greater focus on step-down facilities and possibly the greater use of open centres. If the Minister has any information on that I would appreciate it.

The other reason I put down the question is that when representatives of the Prison Officers Association came before a recent meeting of the Sub-Committee on Penal Reform they outlined in their submission that overcrowding could be addressed in a number of ways, one of which was greater use of open prisons, but they also stated that even within the closed prison system there is great scope to address some of the overcrowding. The example given was Wheatfield Prison where there is a new prison block sitting idle. There is a row of offices which are not being used and for a small amount of capital funding they could be converted and made suitable for some low-risk prisoners.

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