Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The problem is that most women who end up in prison are very vulnerable. They are generally victims of abuse and poverty and have drug issues. It is very worrying that the report of the investigative team in Northern Ireland found that, while there have been thousands of drug seizures in Irish prisons, the budget to deal with drug treatment in prisons has been cut by €1 million every year. Best practice states that women should be accommodated in open care centres. The Minister seems to have said that step-down facilities are not an alternative to incarceration but an exit route after incarceration. These women really need support for independent living. This is a paternalistic, patronising attitude to what they need and other countries say women should not be imprisoned at all. When a man goes to prison nothing really happens to his kids and the woman tends to go and visit but when a woman goes to prison it affects the whole family, in terms of accommodation and other issues. It is incredibly destabilising and it should not be used.

I forwarded the Minister's previous reply about the size of Limerick Prison to organisations, such as the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice, that are at the forefront on this issue. They were shocked to hear that it is planned to build a bigger prison for women. Rather than building larger prisons for women, we should be reducing prison sizes and investing in resources.

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