Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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287. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality further to Parliamentary Question No. 105 of 21 June 2018, the reason the information requested has not been made available in view of the fact that it is kept by the Irish Prison Service, IPS and can be produced in tabular form. [30079/18]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by officials in the Irish Prison Service (IPS) that the information requested by the Deputy, which I committed to provide to her when it had been compiled, is now to hand and outlined below.

I am informed that the number of prisoners sleeping on a mattress on the floor in Cloverhill Prison in the 3 months referred to is as follows:

April - 8

May - 21

June - 15

I wish to advise the Deputy that as Cloverhill Prison is the primary remand prison for the Leinster area, it has been affected more significantly in terms of the increased number of committals in the past year.

Prison Governors are, by law, required to admit into custody all prisoners committed to prison by the Courts. The Irish Prison Service therefore has no control over the numbers committed to custody at any given time.

Finally, I am further advised by my officials in the Irish Prison Service that for a significant period of the time referenced in the Question, a number of cells in the prison were out of commission for essential renovation and refurbishment works and that these cells are now back in commission and available to the Governor.