Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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1165. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the capacity of Limerick prison; the number of persons currently incarcerated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11835/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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The Irish Prison Service has confirmed that information regarding prison capacity and the numbers of prisoners in custody is collated daily by the Irish Prison Service Statistics Unit and published on its website (www.irishprisons.ie). This information can be found in the Information Centre under Statistics & Information, Daily Prisoner Population. The direct link is:

The capacity of Limerick Prison (Male) is 286 and Limerick Prison (Female) is 56. On 11th March, 2025, there were 372 prisoners in custody in Limerick Prison (Male) and 80 in Limerick Prison (Female).

The Irish Prison Service must accept into custody all people committed to prison by the Courts and has no control over the numbers committed to custody at any given time.

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.

A Prison Overcrowding Response Group was established in 2023 to develop proposed actions to address the problem of Irish prisons operating above capacity. The Group comprised representatives from the Department of Justice, An Garda Síochána, the Irish Prison Service, the Probation Service, and the Courts Service. In 2024, the Group presented its report to the Minister and 12 actions were approved for implementation.

Two actions, concerning a new structured temporary release for women and the establishment of a specialised Probation Service response for scaling, have been combined and a pilot scheme has been established targeting women serving custodial sentences of 18 months or less in Limerick’s Female Prison.

While focused on rehabilitation and reducing offending, 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.

In this regard, 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 300 additional spaces.

The Irish Prison Service capital budget is €53m in 2025, an increase of €22.5m on the original 2024 allocation, focused on bringing additional prison spaces into the system. The Irish Prison Service continues to engage with the Department of Justice to progress plans to bring on stream accommodation to support the target of 1,500 additional prison places as set out under the Programme for Government.