Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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489. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if his attention has been drawn to the official figures published by the Irish Prison Service which indicate that the combined capacity across Irish prisons has reached 100%; and his Department's plan to deal with this issue. [6498/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the Prison Service must accept all prisoners committed by the Courts. As such the Irish Prison Service has no control over the numbers committed to custody at any given time, and the prison system is, of course, subject to peaks and troughs.

Where the number of prisoners exceeds the maximum capacity in any prison, Irish Prison Service officials make every effort to deal with this through a combination of inter-prison transfers and appropriate use of structured temporary release. Decisions in relation to temporary release are considered on a case by case basis and the safety of the public is paramount when those decisions are made.

The Deputy may be aware that Government has provided significant capital funding to the Irish Prison Service in order to enhance the existing prison infrastructure. The commissioning of a new male and female prison accommodation in Limerick Prison will provide an additional 90 male spaces and 22 additional female cell spaces. This new male accommodation is now partially open and the female accommodation is expected to become operational in the first quarter of 2023.

In addition, the Programme for Government 2020 contains a broad range of policies and proposals that represent a coherent approach to enhancing and sustaining a more just and safe society, with a specific commitment to review policy options for prison and penal reform. In respect of delivering on this commitment, the Government recently approved the Review of Policy Options for Prison and Penal Reform 2022-2024.

This review seeks to find the balance between ensuring that people who commit serious crimes receive a punishment and a period of incarceration proportionate to that crime, while at the same time acknowledging that sometimes community based sanctions are more appropriate in diverting offenders away from future criminal activity.

In addition to delivering the recommendations of the Review of Policy Options for Prison and Penal Reform, the need to ensure the continued availability of modern prison facilities with adequate capacity will continue to be central to the work of the Irish Prison Service and will be core to the development of the new Irish Prison Service Capital Plan.