Tom Brabazon (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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5. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the actions his Department is taking to provide additional prison places to meet current and future demand. [36720/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Brabazon for the question. I am very aware of the capacity issues that exist in our prisons, and challenges faced by those who work and live in our prisons as a result. The current programme for Government commits to increasing the capacity of our prisons by an additional 1,500 spaces, and the Irish Prison Service has already begun work to achieve this. Since January 2022, capacity across the prison estate has been increased by more than 300 new spaces, with 126 delivered in 2024 and 40 delivered to date in 2025, with plans to deliver a further 101 additional spaces by the end this year.

Budget 2025 increased overall funding to the Irish Prison Service by €79 million, or 18%, when compared to 2024, bringing the total allocated to nearly €525 million. This increase is to fund measures to address overcrowding, including a capital budget of €53 million, which is €22.5 million more than the original 2024 allocation. The Irish Prison Service also aims to recruit up to 300 prison officers in 2025, in addition to the 271 prison officers recruited in 2024.

The future prison capacity working group was established back in 2024 to further consider future prison capacity needs and to make recommendations on the numbers and types of prison capacity needed out to 2035. I brought the report of this working group to Cabinet recently and it will be published shortly. I also recently brought to Cabinet a proposal to accelerate the delivery of 960 additional prison spaces by utilising an exemption from the initial approval stages of the infrastructure guidelines for these projects.

That is the public spending code. This will enable accelerated delivery with timelines reduced by 12 months to 18 months. Overall, there are plans in place to deliver extra spaces. It has to be done rapidly. I am doing it as fast as I can, but I understand the capacity issues.

Tom Brabazon (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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I warmly welcome the provision in the programme for Government for the construction of Thornton Hall and the additional places the Minister mentioned. The current prison population is 14% over capacity. The Irish Penal Reform Trust, IPRT, has expressed serious concern about the current situation. The Minister is doing his absolute best in that regard. I have concern about the appearance of a revolving door situation. It can be demoralising for members of An Garda Síochána who have spent a lot of time and resources investigating, prosecuting and achieving a conviction, only to find out a convict is back out on the streets quickly because the Prison Service does not have sufficient capacity. The dearth of prison places might also affect judicial discretion. Judges might be leaning towards a custodial sentence and because they see some of their customers, for want of a better word, coming before them again very quickly after they have been previously given a custodial custody, it might sway it the other way.

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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This is one area of the criminal justice system where there are capacity issues that need to be addressed fundamentally and rapidly. We invest huge resources in An Garda Síochána and the courts to ensure we get cases on for hearing in the criminal courts as quickly as possible. The whole system will not operate effectively if, at the end of those processes when a person has received a significant custodial sentence, there is an issue arising in respect of capacity for that person to serve their sentence.

As the Deputy will appreciate, it is also the case that we need to look at alternatives to imprisonment. There are a lot of people in prison. I have visited five of the prisons to date. There are a lot of people in prison who have serious health and addiction issues. There are also people in prison who could be doing community service. That is an area that I am going to change by amending the community services legislation to allow judges to now consider the imposition of community sanctions in respect of a person on whom a sentence of up to two years in prison is to be imposed. There are options other than fining or incarcerating somebody.

Tom Brabazon (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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I warmly welcome the Minister's comments in relation to alternatives to custodial sentences and that he is reviewing the alternatives. Community service is something that could benefit society more widely.

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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I want the House to be aware that there are some very fine prisons in Ireland. We talked about Cork Prison. The new Cork Prison, which I have visited, is an excellent prison. Similarly, I have visited both the men's and women's prisons in Limerick. Huge investment went into them. The Irish Prison Service deserve to be commended on getting these prisons built on time and on budget. When we do prisons, we do them well. Our population has increased significantly. However, our prison capacity has not similarly increased. If we go back to 2011, we had a prison capacity of approximately 4,600. Today, we still have a prison capacity of 4,600. We need to recognise that with the increasing population, there has to be an increase in capacity for prisons. That is not a sign that we are turning into a lock-them-up society, but it is an indication that when there is a greater population, we are going to need greater prison spaces.