Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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149. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the steps he is taking to address prison overcrowding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24603/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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I am acutely aware of capacity restraints in our prisons, and the challenges faced by those who work and live in our prisons. The current Programme for Government commits to increasing the capacity of our prisons by 1,500, and the Irish Prison Service have already begun work to achieve this.

I am also committed to progressing commitments in the Programme for Government related to the expansion of community sanctions, which will contribute to reducing prison overcrowding and improving efforts to rehabilitate offenders.

On the 6th May last, I secured Government approval for the drafting of the Criminal Law and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2025. The Bill includes a range of measures which will improve operational capacity in our prisons and increase sentencing options to reduce reliance on custodial sentences. It includes amendments to the Community Service Act 1983 to encourage greater use of community service orders.

I am committed to progressing and implementing policies aimed at increasing the use of community sanctions, reducing offending, diverting people away from the criminal justice system, and providing effective rehabilitation. These policies aim to contribute to the effective management of prison numbers and increasing the availability of cost-effective criminal justice responses for minor offences.

At present, a judge is obliged to consider imposing a community service order in lieu of custodial sentences of 12 months or less. I am proposing that the obligation to consider community service be to applied to sentences up to 24 months. I am also proposing to double from 240 to 480 the maximum community service hours that a court may impose.

In Budget 2025, the Probation Service received an additional €4 million, bringing the total budget to over €60 million, to expand crime-diversion programmes, support step-down facilities, restorative justice, and community-based alternatives to imprisonment.

Last month, I was pleased to approve the publication of the Probation Service Community Service Implementation Plan, New Directions 2025-2027. It sets out a range of actions and targets to increase the uptake, consistency and availability of Community Service Orders.

The Programme for Government also commits to implement electronic monitoring for appropriate categories of offender. I would like to assure the Deputy that work is underway to operationalise electronic monitoring in line with existing legislative provisions.

The Deputy may also be aware that there was an increase of €79m (18%) in Budget 2025, towards a total of €525m in funding, to increase prison capacity and tackle overcrowding. The Irish Prison Service’s capital budget of €53m in 2025 is €22.5m more than the original 2024 allocation, and this is focused on bringing additional prison spaces into the system.

Since 2022, capacity across the prison estate has been increased by more than 300 new spaces, with over 139 delivered in the last 12 months and more than 90 additional spaces to be added in 2025.

These spaces were added through the reopening of the Training Unit in Mountjoy, the opening of new male accommodation and a new standalone female prison in Limerick and a range of other projects.

The Irish Prison Service is also aiming to recruit 300 prison officers in 2025, in addition to the 271 prison officers recruited in 2024, and will launch another recruitment campaign this summer.

Taken together, these actions form part of one of the fastest-ever expansions of prison capacity in Ireland.

A range of actions to address capacity issues in our prisons was also agreed in June 2024 following on from the report of the Prison Overcrowding Response Group, which was composed of officials from the Department of Justice and representatives from relevant agencies. Work to implement these is ongoing. Furthermore, a Working Group was established in the second half of 2024 to further consider future prison capacity needs and to make recommendations on the numbers and types of prison capacity needed out to 2035.