Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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509. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the total number of people detained in the Irish Prison Service on 1 July 2024; the extent to which the Irish Prison Service is currently over capacity; the number of people on a waiting list for psychology services; the number attending psychology services; the average waiting time for those currently waiting and the average time waited by those who gain access to psychology services; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29182/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the Irish Prison Service must accept into custody all people committed to prison by the Courts. As such, the Irish Prison Service has no control over the numbers committed to custody at any given time.

As of, 01 July 2024, there are 5,029 in custody across the prison estate or 112% of the overall capacity.

The Deputy may wish to know, that detailed daily and monthly population and capacity figures are available on the Irish Prison's website. www.irishprisons.ie/information-centre/statistics-information/statistics-introduction/

While focused on rehabilitation and reducing offending, Government is continuing to invest in the prison estate, to ensure that it is modern, fit-for-purpose and has the capacity to accommodate those committed to prison by the Courts Service. Significant capital funding has been available to the Irish Prison Service to enhance the existing prison infrastructure and to provide additional capacity in recent years.

The Irish Prison Service is engaging with my Department to progress plans to bring new spaces for over 1,100 people on stream between 2024 and 2030 with short term projects progressing, which are expected to deliver accommodation for over 170 people this year. As part of these plans I have secured capital funding of €159m for the years 2024 to 2026, including securing an increase of €49.5m through the most recent NDP allocations.

A new Working Group on future prison capacity has been established, which will consider the additional future capacity needs of our prisons, including quantities and types of accommodation. It will also make recommendations on the future use of the site at Thornton Hall and the role it can play in providing additional and modern prison accommodation.

I am advised by my officials in the Irish Prison Service that the information requested by the Deputy on the average waiting time for those currently waiting to see psychology is not recorded centrally and would require a manual examination of a considerable number of individual records which could not be justified with the current demands on staff resources.

However, I can inform the Deputy that on, 2^nd July 2024, there were 1,914 people in custody on a waiting list to see a prison psychologist with 609 currently on a psychology caseload.

I can further advise the Deputy, that the average time waited by those who are on the Psychology Services caseload can be viewed in Tables 1 and 2.

The most recent data available for waiting times for those who were seen for open referral for triage and pro-active triage was taken at the end of Q1 2024. The table shows the wait times following open referral for triage (mental health, other emotional or behavioural difficulties) for those who were seen in Q1 2024 for triage compared to those seen in 2023 & 2022 for triage.

Table 1:

The data above shows that the average number of day’s people had to wait to be seen for triage following a referral (mental health or another emotional or behavioural difficulty) in 2023 has reduced or broadly stayed the same, when compared to 2022.

Table 2: Wait times following proactive referrals on committal:

I can also advise the Deputy that in Budget 2023, additional dedicated funding of €970K was secured to increase the number of psychologists employed by the Irish Prison Service. This year, an additional circa €27 million was secured for the Irish Prisons Service budget. This includes approximately €9m in staffing to provide for increased pay roll costs, recruitment, and 65,000 additional hours to help with current pressures.

Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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510. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the total number of people on a waiting list for addiction counselling services in the Irish Prison Service on 1 July 2024; the number of people attending addiction counselling services; the average waiting time for those currently waiting and the average time waited by those who gain access to addiction counselling services; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29183/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Irish Prison Service provides a health care service for people with addictions in a structured, safe and professional way in line with international best practice. The Irish Prison Service continues to be committed to, and involved with, the National Drugs Strategy in partnership with community colleagues and organisations.

It is the policy of the Prison Service that, where a person committed to prison gives a history of opiate use and tests positive for opioids, they are offered a medically assisted, symptomatic detoxification, if clinically indicated.

Patients can, as part of the assessment process, discuss other treatment options with healthcare staff and those treatment options may include stabilisation on methadone maintenance for those who wish to continue on maintenance while in prison, and when they return to the community on release.

The Irish Prison Service engages Merchants Quay Ireland (MQI) to provide a prison-based addiction counselling service across the entire Irish Prison Service estate (with the exception of Arbour Hill Prison where there is currently no clinical need for such a service, though this will be reviewed on an ongoing basis). The addiction counselling service includes structured assessments and evidence-based counselling interventions, with clearly-defined treatment plans and goals.

The MQI service provides a range of counselling and intervention skills related to substance misuse and dependency. These include motivational interviewing and enhancement therapy, a twelve step facilitation programme, cognitive behavioural therapy and harm reduction approaches and people in custody are offered one to one counselling and group work interventions.

The Irish Prison Service and MQI prioritise those that are in greatest clinical need, and work together as part of a multidisciplinary team to manage the waiting list. MQI team leaders review caseloads with each addiction counsellor monthly to ensure that cases are closing appropriately.

There are many local variables unique to each prison which can influence how long a person could remain on the waiting list to see an addiction counsellor. These factors include access to the person if they are on remand, their expected date of release, where in the prison they reside (e.g. are they on protection or non-protection), and their individual work schedule.

To manage these unique prison by prison variables, MQI are working on bespoke options. For example, in Cloverhill Prison, MQI in conjunction with the IPS, are preparing to pilot a new triage model which aims to direct the person in custody to the most appropriate follow up after assessment - e.g. one-to-one on site counselling, one-to-one counselling utilising online systems, or onsite group support. This will be implemented before the end of this year, and will run for an initial six-month period, followed by an evaluation. MQI also provides a full time phone line in the prison estate to provide more immediate support and reduce pressure on waiting lists.

It will also be of interest to the Deputy to know that the Prison Service published a new “Drug Strategy 2023 – 2026” in November 2023. This strategy re-affirms the Prison Service’s commitment to working steadfastly to reduce the harm of drug use within the prison population. This strategy sets out practical goals to increase support for security measures to prevent access, education and information programmes to deter trafficking, and promote drug treatment and counselling services in collaboration with government and non-government partners to help tackle the insidious threat posed by illegal drug use and trafficking.

In addition, the Irish Prison Service is developing a bespoke, peer-led recovery model to support people in custody who face addiction difficulties. Part of this peer led recovery model will provide for co-occurring difficulties associated with mental health and addiction.

I can advise the Deputy that there are currently 618 prisoners engaged in addiction counselling in prisons nationally. There were a further 827 prisoners on waiting lists to access addiction counselling services as at end of May 2024, a breakdown by prison is provided in the table below. The data in respect of the average waiting time to access addiction counselling services is not currently recorded.