Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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455. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the total number of occasions on which prisoners slept on mattresses, by prison, during Q4 2022; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2998/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware the Irish Prison Service does not have the option of refusing committals and must accept all people committed by the courts. The prison system is under increasing pressure due to factors such as continuing population growth.

I can advise the Deputy that the Irish Prison Service and my Department are committed to providing safe and secure custody for all people committed to prison while ensuring a safe working environment for staff. Officials in the Irish Prison Service and the Department are continuously working to identify short, medium and longer term proposals to help manage the current capacity issues in our prisons.

Where the number of people in custody exceeds the maximum capacity in any prison, officials in the Irish Prison Service make every effort to deal with this through a combination of inter-prison transfers and 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.

In addition, a Prison Overcrowding Response Group has been established, with officials from across the Department, the Irish Prison Service, Probation Service, Courts Service, and An Garda Síochána. This group is currently examining proposals to address overcrowding.

While focused on rehabilitation and reducing offending, including through diversion, we also need to continue to invest in our prison estate, to ensure that it is modern and fit for purpose and that it has the capacity to accommodate those committed to prison by the courts.

As the Deputy will be aware, the Government has made significant capital funding available to the Irish Prison Service in order to enhance the existing prison infrastructure and to provide additional capacity.

In recent years, works have been completed to modernise the Mountjoy complex, a new prison was constructed in Cork and additional prisoner accommodation was provided in the Midlands Prison.

Furthermore, the Training Unit in Mountjoy was reopened providing an additional 96 spaces and the opening of new male accommodation in Limerick in 2022 has provided an additional 90 cell spaces. The new standalone female prison in Limerick is now providing an additional 22 female cell spaces, bringing additional capacity across the estate to in excess of 200 new spaces.

Plans have also been outlined for 4 capital projects at Castlerea, Cloverhill, the Midlands and Mountjoy prisons to deliver a maximum of 620 additional spaces. I am continuing to engage with the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform to progress an agreed schedule of capital builds, including the delivery of additional Prison spaces.

The information requested by the Deputy in respect of the number of people in custody sleeping on mattresses on the floor during quarter four of 2022 is contained in the tables below.

Number of prisoners sleeping on mattresses on the floor October 2022

*The following prisons had no instances of prisoners sleeping on mattresses on the floor in October 2022: Arbour Hill, Cork, Dóchas Centre, Midlands, Portlaoise, Shelton Abbey, Loughan House and Wheatfield Prison.

Number of prisoners sleeping on mattresses on the floor November 2022

**The following prisons had no instances of prisoners sleeping on mattresses on the floor in November 2022: Arbour Hill, Dóchas Centre, Midlands, Portlaoise, Shelton Abbey, Loughan House and Wheatfield Prison.

Number of prisoners sleeping on mattresses on the floor December 2022

***The following prisons had no instances of prisoners sleeping on mattresses on the floor in December 2022: Arbour Hill, Midlands, Portlaoise, Shelton Abbey, Loughan House and Wheatfield Prison.

The Deputy will wish to note that while numbers in custody may fall below a prisons bed capacity there may still be people sleeping on mattresses as it could be a case that it was not possible to share with someone that was already in the cell. This can arise due to the nature of offence of either person, security issues in terms of gangland or also potential medical issues that would require a person to be kept in a cell on their own. It could also be the case that there are maintenance issues with individual cells resulting in the cell being out of use.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by the Irish Prison Service that there are 27 dedicated Integrated Sentence Management (ISM) Coordinators operational in all prisons.

There are an additional 2 Integrated Sentence Management Coordinators assigned to the shared Irish Prison Service and Probation Service Co-Located Unit, who are dedicated to the sentence management of prisoners selected for participation in the Joint Agency Response to Crime, Community Support and Community Return Schemes. Integrated Sentence Management Coordinators are supported by prison management and the prison-based multi-disciplinary team to work with operational staff to deliver effective sentence management.

Prisoners with a sentence of greater than one year or prisoners serving a sentence of any length for a sex offence are eligible to take part in the Integrated Sentence Management process.

Additionally Integrated Sentence Management Coordinators also support prisoners who are serving sentences of less than one year and are engaged in the Community Support Scheme.

The Integrated Sentence Management process is a prisoner-centred, multi-disciplinary approach to working with prisoners, with a particular emphasis on prisoners taking greater personal responsibility for their own development through active engagement with services in the prisons. Important issues such as accommodation, employment and education are addressed to help the prisoner plan towards improved resettlement into the community on release and reduce the risk of re-offending.

The information requested by the Deputy in respect of the number of Integrated Sentence Management (ISM) coordinators allocated to each prison and the average caseload per Integrated Sentence Management Coordinator is provided in the table below.

*This vacancy is currently being filled by relief panel until such time as it can be permanently filled.

Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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457. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of reports submitted to her office by the Office of the Inspector of Prisons that have not yet been published; the date of submission of each of these reports; when such reports will be published; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3074/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy is aware, the Inspector of Prisons is a statutory office holder, independent in the performance of his functions, in accordance with the Prisons Act 2007.

Section 31(1) of the Prisons Act 2007 places an obligation on the Inspector of Prisons to carry out regular inspections of prisons in Ireland. Under section 31(2) the Inspector may, and shall if so requested by the Minister for Justice, investigate any matter arising out of the management or operation of a prison and shall submit a report to the Minister on any such investigation.

Since 2012, the Inspector of Prisons has been responsible for preparing a report on the death of any person in the custody of the Irish Prison Service, including any person who has been on temporary release for less than one month prior to their death. These reports are laid by me before the Houses of the Oireachtas and published on gov.ie. Subsequently, the Inspector publishes them on his own website.

Four inspection reports and four reports relating to deaths in custody are awaiting publication. As I previously indicated to the Deputy, I was not in a position to publish a number of reports based on legal advice. These reports were received between August 2020 and December 2023. The current position is that I expect to be in position to publish six reports shortly while two remain unpublished on foot of legal advice.