Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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184. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of prisoners sleeping on mattresses, by prison, in tabular form; the number of prisoners sleeping more than one to a cell; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30100/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware the Irish Prison Service must accept all people committed by the courts.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.

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, capacity across the prison estate has been increased by in excess of 200 additional spaces through the reopening of the Training Unit in Mountjoy, the opening of new male accommodation in Limerick and the new standalone female prison in Limerick.

The Irish Prison Service continues to engage with my Department to progress plans to bring on stream accommodation for over 1,100 prisoners between 2024 and 2030.

As part of these plans, I secured capital funding of €159m for the years 2024 to 2026, including an increase of €49.5m in the most recent NDP allocations.

Short term projects are being progressed which are expected to deliver accommodation for over 170 prisoners in 2024. The Prison Service are also currently engaged with the Defence Forces to assess the feasibility of bringing the Curragh Military Prison into use.

The information requested by the Deputy in respect of the number of people in custody sleeping on mattresses on the floor on 8 July 2024 is provided in the table below.