Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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309. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality how many places are available in prisons here for people with a physical disability; if the Prison Service sought quotations in 2015 for the conversion of prison cells and the cost of converting suitable prison accommodation to make it suitable for persons with a physical disability; the yearly cost of retaining persons with a physical disability under house arrest; the number of persons with a disability who have been turned away from prisons in the past five years due to insufficient facilities, resulting in them serving their sentence in their home; the number of people currently serving prison sentences at home, the nature of the offences and the cost, by county; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43904/15]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that there are places available in prisons for people with a physical disability. There are currently 16 adapted cells available throughout the prison estate with a further two coming on stream with the opening of the new Cork Prison in early 2016. In addition the original design of the Dochas Centre lends itself to disabled use with minor adjustments if required. Disabled cells put into new prison accommodation wings are priced as part of an overall refurbishment and as such do not have any unit cost recorded. 

However prison is not a suitable environment for persons with certain medical conditions and/or certain severe disabilities.

The Irish Prison Service provide a Primary Care Service for all prisoners in their charge, and all efforts are made to meet the needs of all prisoners. When medical requirements or the severity of the disability are such that medical advice is that prison is not a suitable environment, alternatives such as release to an appropriate medical facility, or to another more suitably environment are considered. The statutory basis for transferring such persons to a non prison environment is the Criminal Justice Act 1960 as amended. That provision allows conditions to be imposed including conditions on where a person may be. Such persons may be subject to supervision or not, depending on the circumstances. A person who breaches a condition is deemed to be unlawfully at large. I am not in a position at present to give all the detailed information sought by the Deputy but I can say that on 7 December, there were 429 prisoners serving their sentence in the community, the majority of whom will be living at home. The majority of these would not have been released from prison due to a physical disability or medical condition.