As the Deputy will be aware, the Irish Prison Service must accept into custody all people committed to prison by the Courts. As such, the Irish Prison Service has no control over the numbers committed to custody at any given time.
As of, 01 July 2024, there are 5,029 in custody across the prison estate or 112% of the overall capacity.
The Deputy may wish to know, that detailed daily and monthly population and capacity figures are available on the Irish Prison's website. www.irishprisons.ie/information-centre/statistics-information/statistics-introduction/
While focused on rehabilitation and reducing offending, Government is continuing to invest in the prison estate, to ensure that it is modern, fit-for-purpose and has the capacity to accommodate those committed to prison by the Courts Service. Significant capital funding has been available to the Irish Prison Service to enhance the existing prison infrastructure and to provide additional capacity in recent years.
The Irish Prison Service is engaging with my Department to progress plans to bring new spaces for over 1,100 people on stream between 2024 and 2030 with short term projects progressing, which are expected to deliver accommodation for over 170 people this year. As part of these plans I have secured capital funding of €159m for the years 2024 to 2026, including securing an increase of €49.5m through the most recent NDP allocations.
A new Working Group on future prison capacity has been established, which will consider the additional future capacity needs of our prisons, including quantities and types of accommodation. It will also make recommendations on the future use of the site at Thornton Hall and the role it can play in providing additional and modern prison accommodation.
I am advised by my officials in the Irish Prison Service that the information requested by the Deputy on the average waiting time for those currently waiting to see psychology is not recorded centrally and would require a manual examination of a considerable number of individual records which could not be justified with the current demands on staff resources.
However, I can inform the Deputy that on, 2nd July 2024, there were 1,914 people in custody on a waiting list to see a prison psychologist with 609 currently on a psychology caseload.
I can further advise the Deputy, that the average time waited by those who are on the Psychology Services caseload can be viewed in Tables 1 and 2.
The most recent data available for waiting times for those who were seen for open referral for triage and pro-active triage was taken at the end of Q1 2024. The table shows the wait times following open referral for triage (mental health, other emotional or behavioural difficulties) for those who were seen in Q1 2024 for triage compared to those seen in 2023 & 2022 for triage.
Table 1:
|
|
|
2024 Q1
|
|
|
2023
|
|
|
2022
|
|
Referral Year
|
Number of People
|
Average Number of Days Waiting
|
Referral Year
|
Number of People
|
Average Number of Days Waiting
|
Referral Year
|
Number of People
|
Average Number of Days Waiting
|
|
2024
|
46
|
31
|
2023
|
300
|
67 Days
|
2022
|
291
|
90 Days
|
|
2023
|
92
|
226
|
2022
|
211
|
294 Days
|
2021
|
263
|
298 Days
|
|
2022
|
30
|
573
|
2021
|
60
|
621 Days
|
2020
|
30
|
610 Days
|
|
2021
|
7
|
882
|
2020
|
0
|
-
|
2019
|
2
|
851 Days
|
|
2020
|
0
|
-
|
2019
|
0
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
The data above shows that the average number of day’s people had to wait to be seen for triage following a referral (mental health or another emotional or behavioural difficulty) in 2023 has reduced or broadly stayed the same, when compared to 2022.
Table 2: Wait times following proactive referrals on committal:
|
-
|
-
|
Proactive Referral (Violent Offence)
|
-
|
Proactive Referral
(18-24 yr old)
|
-
|
Proactive Referral
(Sexual Violence)
|
-
|
Proactive Referral (Life Sentence)
|
|
Referral Year
|
Number of Referrals
|
Average Number of Days Waiting
|
Number of Referrals
|
Average Number of Days Waiting
|
Number of Referrals
|
Average Number of Days waiting
|
Number of referrals
|
Average Number of Days Waiting
|
|
2024
|
5
|
24 Days
|
8
|
29 Days
|
9
|
39 Days
|
20
|
26 Days
|
|
2023
|
33
|
103 Days
|
62
|
70 Days
|
78
|
59 Days
|
41
|
45 Days
|
|
2022
|
34
|
263 Days
|
27
|
159 Days
|
20
|
297 Days
|
7
|
171 Days
|
|
2021
|
29
|
683 Days
|
4
|
722 Days
|
17
|
612 Days
|
13
|
569 Days
|
|
2020
|
1
|
861 Days
|
0
|
-
|
5
|
1267 Days
|
3
|
927 Days
|
|
2019
|
0
|
-
|
0
|
-
|
8
|
1370 Days
|
30
|
1365 Days
|
|
2018
|
0
|
-
|
0
|
-
|
4
|
1725 Days
|
5
|
1678 Days
|
I can also advise the Deputy that in Budget 2023, additional dedicated funding of €970K was secured to increase the number of psychologists employed by the Irish Prison Service. This year, an additional circa €27 million was secured for the Irish Prisons Service budget. This includes approximately €9m in staffing to provide for increased pay roll costs, recruitment, and 65,000 additional hours to help with current pressures.
