Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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122. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the action he will take to address overcrowding, inhumane treatment and the systemic failure of rehabilitation services revealed in the latest report by the Office of the Inspector of Prisons; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12672/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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The Government is acutely aware of capacity restraints in our prisons and has committed, in the Programme for Government, to increasing capacity by 1,500. The report referred to by the Deputy sets out the current situation with regard to the impact of over-crowding.

As a result of this, the Irish Prison Service budget was increased by €79 million, or 18%, in Budget 2025 and the capital budget is €53 million in 2025, an increase of €22.5 million on the original 2024 allocation. In recent years, capacity across the prison estate has been increased by in excess of 300 new spaces with over 100 of these added in the last 12 months and 50 to come onstream very soon.

The Irish Prison Service aims to recruit 300 prison officers in 2025, in addition to the 271 prison officers recruited in 2024. An additional €6.2m has been provided to fund 130,000 additional staff hours in our prisons.

The Programme for Government also commits us to establishing high-dependency units within the Irish Prison Service to address severe mental health and addiction challenges and to hiring more therapeutic and medical staff, including psychiatric and addiction nurses, GP’s and psychologists. All people committed to prison are subject to a comprehensive medical assessment by the Prison Healthcare Team, which includes a mental health assessment that supports the development of an individual healthcare plan for prisoners while in custody.

The Prison Service provides adult-education supports and services ranging from basic literacy and numeracy education, up to third level qualifications. Work Training in prisons provides a range of purposeful activities in areas such as catering, laundry, industrial cleaning and industrial skills. A growing number of these include specific training and qualifications for prisoners.

My Department is implementing a range of actions to increase the use of alternatives to custodial sanctions including the Review of Policy Options for Prison and Penal Reform and the commitments under the Programme for Government. These include to implementing electronic monitoring for appropriate categories of offender and to continuing to roll out nationally the voluntary restorative justice programme.

In Budget 2025 the Probation Service received an additional €4m aimed at expanding crime diversion programmes. Their total budget is now over €60m supporting step down facilities, restorative justice, and community-based alternatives to imprisonment, I intend to shortly set out a roadmap with a view to increasing the uptake and availability of community service orders, which will further contribute to the provision of non-custodial sanctions.

The Irish Prison Service Strategic Plan 2023-2027 and Drugs Strategy 2023-2026 both represent a collective commitment to the well-being, rehabilitation and safety of both prisoners and staff. Combined with action on the recommendations from the High Level Task Force on Mental Health and Addiction and the Review of Penal Policy 2022-2024, this will further enhance outcomes within the prison service.