Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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379. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality to outline how much of the money allocated to the prison service in Budget 2025 is for new measures, existing level of service and other. [40193/24]

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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378. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality to outline how much of the €37.6 million allocated to funding the prison service in Budget 2025 that is for the public sector pay deal. [40192/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 379 and 378 together.

I can advise the Deputy that the Irish Prison Service has been allocated a budget of €525m for 2025 to increase prison capacity and tackle overcrowding. This is an increase of €79m or 18%.

I can also advise the Deputy that the capital budget for the Irish Prison Service will increase by over 70% in 2025 as part of the plan to deliver 1,100 extra spaces, including over 150 in 2024.

I can further advise that the Irish Prison Service’s pay budget in 2024 was €319m. It is intended that an additional €37.6m will be allocated to the Irish Prison Service pay budget for 2025, with approximately €14.9m expected to provide for the public sector pay deal. An additional 150 staff will be hired in 2025, in addition to 240 prison officers recruited in 2024.

Funding has also been secured for approximately 130,000 additional staff hours in 2025. Additional hours are applied to support the prisons in meeting demands in excess of the rostered hours of officers. Factors which influence the demands are the prisoner and staff demographics and the prison environment, including the requirement to escort prisoners to and from court, and the large increase in our prisoner population.

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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380. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality to outline how much of the money allocated to the International Protection Office and the International Protection Appeals Tribunal in Budget 2025 that is for new measures. [40195/24]

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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375. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the total budget allocation in Budget 2025 for the International Protection Office and the International Protection Appeals Tribunal; and for a breakdown of the budget allocation, by existing service levels and new measures. [40142/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 380 and 375 together.

I can assure the Deputy that I am fully committed to ensuring that Ireland’s International Protection system is robust and rules based, and that our borders are protected.

I have significantly increased investment into the international protection system, which has allowed for a major increase in processing capacity and the introduction of accelerated processing.

In July 2023, I published a report on the international protection modernisation programme for 2023 and 2024. This programme involves unparalleled multi year programme of investment in staff, panel members, reengineered processes, and technology. My Department has implemented measures to improve efficiencies and throughput as well as enhancing the application, interview and decision-making process for applicants.

This has already demonstrated results. One of the priority areas of focus has been to recruit both civil servants and panel members to increase case processing. The IPO now has 548 staff, an increase of 158% over 2022, the number of decisions issuing from the IPO has trebled over this time, and they are confident of delivering over 14,000 decisions this year.

The total budget this year for the IPO was €31.8 million and €9.2m in respect of the IPAT.

Budget 2025 has provided an additional €25m package for end-to-end investment in the entire immigration system.

The breakdown of the package includes €9.5m allocated for ISD and IPO, as well as an additional €2.4m allocated for IPAT.

These significant additional resources will be directed to streamline the international protection process, with approximately 400 further staff to be recruited. This will support a target of approximately 25,000 decisions by the IPO compared to approximately 14,000 in 2024.

It will also fund increased investment in digital systems to modernise immigration systems, reduce processing times, increase removals (including with a new charter plane service), and strengthen border security.

The additional monies will also go towards funding readiness work for the introduction of the EU Asylum and Migration Pact requirements in June 2026.

All aspects of the international protection modernisation programme will continue to be kept under review and improved on an ongoing basis.

Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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381. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the timeline for the spending of the additional spending allocated to education in prison under Budget 2025. [40197/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I can advise the Deputy that the aim of prison education is to deliver a high quality, broad, flexible programme of education that supports people in custody to cope with their sentence, achieve personal development, prepare for life after release and establish an appetite and capacity for life-long learning.

The Irish Prison Service seeks to deliver relevant programmes that cater for holistic needs, ensuring broad access and high participation, and prioritising those with basic education and literacy needs. It promotes the principles of adult and community education and supports a multi-disciplinary approach within the prison system.

Expenditure through the Irish Prison Service Vote covers the incidental day-to-day costs of running the Education Centres in each prison and Open Centre, including the purchase and repair of educational equipment, and the purchase of course resource materials and educational software.

The timeline for the spend of the increase in budget for educational services will be over the year 2025 in line with increased numbers, in addition to groups and initiatives including the work of the Prison Education Taskforce and the Building Bridges project.

Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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382. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if Budget 2025 funding commitments for care and rehabilitation services will be used to address the existing gaps in addiction supports in the Irish prison system. [40198/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I can advise the Deputy that the Irish Prison Service seeks to offer a multi-disciplinary addiction support programme for people in custody. The Irish Prison Service acknowledges that addiction comes in many forms, from drug and / or alcohol addiction and dual diagnosis, through to gambling and other non-substance use addiction-related behaviour.

People in custody have access to a growing range of medical and rehabilitative services, such as methadone substitution treatment, counselling, psychological intervention, peer to peer support programmes, psycho-education and the Treatment and Rehabilitation Programme provided by Merchants Quay Ireland, available in the Medical Unit in Mountjoy Prison. Treatment provided is in line with the National Drug Strategy, the Irish Prison Service Drugs Strategy 2023-2026, the Health Needs Assessment and the High Level Taskforce on the mental health and addiction challenges of persons interacting with the criminal justice system

The Irish Prison Service spends in excess of €1 million per annum on addiction counselling support. This sum rose to over €1.5 million recently following agreement to support two important collaborations. First is a collaboration between the Irish Prison Service, Recovery Academy, Recovery College and Dublin City University in relation to peer to peer support programmes. Second is a collaboration between University College Cork and the Irish Prison Service in relation to an Addictions Studies educational programme. The Irish Prison Service and Health Service Executive are also seeking to collaborate in relation to a pilot dual diagnosis service in Cork Prison.

Finally, the Deputy may wish to know that the Irish Prison Service has recently employed a national lead to oversee current and future policy and strategy in relation to mental health and addiction in Irish prisons.

The timeline for the spend of any increase in budget for addiction support in prisons will be over the year 2025 and will be agreed by the Irish Prison Service in line with agreed policy, strategy and any funding of new initiatives.