Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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196. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of persons who died as prisoners in each of the past ten years and to date in 2023; and the cause of death, in tabular form. [5271/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I can advise the Deputy that the information relating to the number of prisoners who died in the State in each of the last ten years and to date in 2023 is provided in table 1 below and I would like to express my sympathies to the family and friends of each of those individuals.

As previously advised, the Irish Prison Service does not record the cause of death where the death occurred while the prisoner was outside the prison either on temporary release, renewable temporary release, full temporary release or unlawfully at large and the information available on cause of death is set out in table 2 below.

As the Deputy may be aware, all deaths in custody are notified to An Garda Síochána, who investigate where circumstances warrant, in addition to the inquest held in the Coroner's Court. The cause of death is determined by a jury on the basis of the information presented to the Coroner's Court. 

The Deputy may also be aware that all deaths in custody and deaths that occur within one month of temporary release, are also subject to an independent investigation by the Inspector of Prisons. 

Following this investigation, the Inspector of Prisons Office makes recommendations for improvement where appropriate. These recommendations are forwarded to the Prison Service for their attention and the final report is submitted to the Minister for Justice. Finalised reports and any associated Prison Service Action Plan to address recommendations are published in an anonymised form on the Gov.ie website and made available to the Coroner.

Further, the Irish Prison Service has a robust, internal review mechanism which assesses the circumstances of a death in custody, highlights accountability and actions taken in relation to the incident, and outlines lessons learned. This outcome review is reported to the Irish Prison Service National Suicide and Harm Prevention Steering Group, which is chaired by the Director General.

The circumstances of each death in custody and incident of self-harm are also examined by a suicide prevention group in each institution. The groups are chaired by the Prison Governor and include representatives from the various services including; Prison Doctor, Psychiatry, Psychology, Chaplaincy, Probation, Education, and Prison staff. The Groups are required to meet quarterly, or more often if necessary. Their examinations fully cover the background and circumstances of each death and their objective is to identify, where possible, measures which might be implemented to contribute to a reduction in the risk of deaths in the future.

Table 1: Total Deaths in custody from 2012 to 30 January 2023 inclusive that took place while the prisoner was in Prison, outside the prison on Temporary Release, on Renewable Temporary Release, Full Temporary Release or Unlawfully at Large:

Table 2: Deaths in Custody 2012 to 30 January inclusive classified by cause of death as determined by Coroner: