Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 414: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if his attention has been drawn to the increase in violence in prisons here; his plans to reduce these occurrences; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35651/11]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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No level of inter prisoner violence is acceptable. Every effort is made by prison staff and management to limit the scope of acts of violence. However, no regime can completely eliminate the possibility of violent incidents happening in a prison setting where a large number of dangerous and violent offenders are being held.

When you consider that in 2010 the Irish Prison Service provided over 1.5 million (4,290 x 365) bed nights to predominantly young males, the number of assaults on prisoners, particularly those using a weapon, was comparatively low. There were a total of 1014 incidents of violence among prisoners during the year and this includes very minor incidents. This amounts to an average of 2.5 incidents a day among a population of more than 4,300. Moreover, attacks by prisoners on prisoners are not usually random acts of violence - they are related to matters on the outside such as drug debts, gang rivalry, etc.

The Irish Prison Service have also successfully introduced a number of measures across the prison estate such as handheld metal detectors, netting over prison yards, BOSS chairs and security screening machines to detect and prevent weapons from entering the prison to further limit the scope of acts of violence.