Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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544. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality his plans to collate comprehensive data on deaths in custody. [26287/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I can assure the Deputy that all deaths in custody are treated very seriously. The Irish Prison Service notify all deaths in their custody to An Garda Síochána, who investigate as appropriate, in addition to the inquest held in the Coroner's Court.

All deaths in custody as well as any that occur within one month of temporary release from prison service custody are also subject to an independent investigation by the Office of the Inspector of Prisons.

Following an investigation, the Inspector of Prisons makes recommendations where appropriate. These recommendations are considered and responded to by the Irish Prison Service and the final report is submitted to the Minister for Justice. Finalised reports and any associated Prison Service Action Plan to address recommendations made are published in an anonymised form on the Gov.iewebsite and made available to the Coroner.

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.

As the Deputy may be aware, under subsection 102(1) of the Garda Síochána Act 2005 (as amended), the Garda Commissioner shall refer to the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission any matter that appears to the Garda Commissioner to indicate that the conduct of a member of An Garda Síochána may have resulted in the death of, or serious harm to, a person. Under subsection 102(2) of the Act, the Ombudsman Commission shall ensure that any matter referred to the Commission under subsection (1) is investigated.

It should be noted that An Garda Síochána must determine if the threshold has been reached to refer an incident to GSOC under Section 102. This determination is an operational matter for the Commissioner and neither I, as Minister, nor GSOC has any role in this independent decision making process.

I am informed that it has been the practice of GSOC in its annual reporting to provide overviews of the circumstances that led to any Section 102 referrals in a given reporting year, including the proportion of referrals that arose from deaths. GSOC currently record details of the subset of deaths in custody which are referred to them for investigation by AGS.

The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) is the independent statutory body established under the Garda Síochána Act 2005 (as amended) to investigate complaints against members of An Garda Síochána. As Minister, I have no role in the investigative functions of GSOC.

An Garda Síochána also provide figures for deaths in custody to the Policing Authority on a monthly basis.

As the Deputy will be aware, the General Scheme of the Inspection of Places of Detention Bill was published in June 2022. The Bill will expand the statutory basis for the current Inspector of Prisons and provide for the new Chief Inspector of Places of Detention to be designated as the National Preventive Mechanism for places of detention in the criminal justice system.

The Bill will place the Chief Inspector’s role in investigating deaths in custody on a statutory footing. The Bill completed pre-legislative scrutiny and the Report of the Justice Committee was published in March 2023. The Bill is currently being drafted.