Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 7 October 2025
405. Deputy Mark Ward asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration the average percentage of bed capacity used in Irish prisons, by male and female, in 2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53193/25]
View answerI can inform the Deputy that based on end of year capacity figures and average occupancy figures for 2024, the following is the position. There were 251 females in custody and a bed capacity of 202 which equates to 124%. There were 4,690 males in custody and a bed capacity of 4329 which equates to 108%.
Prison governors are required to accept into custody everyone 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.
Since 2022, capacity across the prison estate has been increased by 380 new spaces, with plans to deliver a further 98 additional spaces this year.
The target is to deliver 1,595 individual prison spaces by 2031. A record capital investment of €495 million is being provided to IPS over the next 5 years which will provide for the largest ever prison building programme. This includes a new prison on the site of the old Cork prison, a new block in Wheatfield, an additional block extension at Midlands prison, and additional spaces at Castlerea, Mountjoy and Dóchas. A new mental health therapeutic centre is also planned for Mountjoy. An exemption under the Infrastructure Guidelines will allow for delivery of 960 new places to be accelerated and this is expected to speed up delivery timelines by 12 to 18 months.
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.
