Anne Ferris (Wicklow, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

573. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if she will provide figures for the health care budget allocated to the prison service as a whole in each of the years 2012 to 2014, inclusive; the health care budget allocated to Mountjoy Prison and Wheatfield Prison in the same years; how these figures compare with comparative health care spend in total as well as in each named facility; the respective data per head of prisoner population; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22119/15]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I have been advised by the Irish Prison Service that its healthcare budget was €7.3million in 2012, €8.3million in 2013, and €7.5million in 2014. The daily average number of persons in custody in 2012 was 4,318, resulting in a budget per head of population of €1,690.60. The daily average number of persons in custody in 2013 was 4,158, with a budget per head of population of €1,996.15, and the daily average in 2014 was 3,915 with a budget per head of population of €1,915.70.

The Irish Prison Service has also confirmed that the healthcare budget is not allocated separately to the individual prison institutions, and it expends the overall healthcare budget in its delivery of appropriate healthcare services to the entire prison population. It is the policy of the Irish Prison Service that all persons in custody are provided with services and standards equivalent to those available in the general community.