Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising the matter, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister for Justice. The Minister, Deputy McEntee, had the opportunity to attend the Prison Officers Association conference last week and spent time with the association talking about the important work prison officers do in our prisons. As the Deputy will be aware, prison environments can be very challenging but are professionally managed by the Prison Service and prison officers who work in them. Their commitment to providing all those in their care with a safe, secure environment that has a strong focus on rehabilitation and education is clear.

The education and training offered in prisons equips people with the tools and knowledge to reform and rehabilitate. It provides a supportive environment in order that they can build purposeful, crime-free lives on release. To achieve this, the Irish Prison Service provides a wide range of rehabilitative and educational programmes to those in custody, which everyone is eligible and allowed to use.

The Minister assures the Deputy the incentivised regime policy is a national policy. All prisoners in the prison estate can access this policy, which strives to reinforce good behaviour and provide tangible incentives to prisoners who participate in structured activities, which in turn lead to a safer and more secure environment. As the Deputy will appreciate, however, the Irish Prison Service must accept into custody everyone committed to prison by the courts. As such, it has no control over the numbers committed to custody at any given time, and the numbers held in our prison are currently particularly high. To manage this, the Prison Service is working closely with the Minister's officials in the Department of Justice to take steps to ensure a safe working environment for staff and the safety and security of all those in custody.

In recent years, the Government has made significant capital funding available to the Irish Prison Service to enhance the existing prison infrastructure and provide additional capacity. The Minister has also recently secured additional capital funding of €49.5 million. This funding will help start four key projects, at Castlerea, Cloverhill, Mountjoy and Midlands prisons, that will create accommodation for up to 670 prisoners. Preparatory work on these projects will commence this year. The funding will also ensure more than 150 additional places come on stream this year. These projects will take time, however, and as part of managing capacity, the Irish Prison Service must make the best use of all available prison spaces.

As advised in the Minister’s recent response to the Deputy’s parliamentary question, sex offenders, both sentenced and on remand, were previously accommodated at four locations, Midlands Prison, Arbour Hill, Castlerea and the Mountjoy training unit. However, due to limitations at these locations and rising numbers of sex offender committals to prison, it was decided to consider other options within the prison estate to accommodate this cohort of prisoner. The progression unit of Mountjoy Prison is self-sufficient and there is no requirement for prisoners living there to interact with or traverse to the main prison. For this reason, it was decided the progression unit was a suitable location to accommodate sex offenders. Those currently accommodated in the progression unit who are not serving their sentences for sex offences will be moved to alternative suitable accommodation within the prison estate.

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