Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by the Irish Prison Service that on 24^th April 2024, there were 909 people held in prison custody solely on a remand or trial warrant.

The number of prisoners on remand/trial by Prison as of 24^th April 2024 is set out in the table below.

*A Remand warrant is a warrant to hold a prisoner or accused person in custody with instructions to return him to a District court on a particular day

**A Trial warrant is a warrant to hold a prisoner or accused person in custody to await trial or continuation/conclusion of his trial.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy is aware, the Office of the Inspector of Prisons (OIP) was established under the Prisons Act 2007 and is independent in how it carries out its functions. The Inspector's role is to carry out regular inspections of prisons. As part of this work the Office of the Inspector of Prisons carry out inspections comprising General Inspections and Thematic Inspection (i.e. inspection of a specific operational area across the whole prison estate.) In addition, 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.

The Inspector's three day monitoring report of the Dóchas Centre was received in my office in August 2020, and it was deemed possible following legal advice to publish this report in January of this year. I requested the Inspector to carry out an investigation into matters arising in the Dóchas Centre, under section 31(2) of the Prisons Act and this investigation report was submitted in February 2022. In addition, a supplementary report which I requested in relation to matters arising from the section 31(2) investigation was received in July 2022.

It was always intended that these reports would be reviewed for publication together but, based on legal advice received by the Department from the Office of the Attorney General, it is not yet possible to publish these reports at this time.

Consideration of these reports is ongoing and I am therefore not in a position to publish them or comment further on their content.

In addition, the Inspector of Prisons has submitted six Death in Custody reports to my Department, 2 on 14 February 2024 and 4 on the 23 February 2024. These are currently being reviewed so they can be published at the earliest opportunity.

The Deputy may also wish to be aware that as part of the Office of the Inspector of Prisons’ regular inspections of prisons six general inspections have been carried out in 2022 and 2023, the reports for which are still awaited. In addition, the Office of the Inspector of Prisons is currently carrying out a Thematic Inspection: Review of Death in Custody Investigations. I look forward to receiving these reports.