Peadar Tóibín
Ceist:451. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration for an update on new prison scoping and the way in which his Department is addressing prison overcrowding. [2995/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraThursday, 15 January 2026
Ceisteanna (451)
Freagraí scríofa
I am acutely aware of the capacity constraints in our prisons and the resulting challenges faced by those who work and live within them.
This Government is pursuing a dual approach to address the issue of prison capacity by increasing physical capacity and pursuing further measures to support non-custodial sanctions.
I can advise the Deputy that over 440 prison spaces have been constructed since 2022 with the majority of these already in use and the rest due to be in use shortly. On conclusion of the NDP Review in July, there was a record capital investment of €67.9 million agreed for 2026, as part of a total investment of €527 million from 2026 to 2030. €495 million will be invested in building projects to deliver on a plan with an overall target of delivering over 1,500 spaces by 2031.
This will be the largest ever building programme in the prison estate and will include a large extension to the existing Cork Prison on the site of the old decommissioned Cork Prison. The programme will include a new block in Wheatfield, an additional block extension at Midlands prison, as well as additional spaces at Castlerea, Mountjoy, Cloverhill, Portlaoise, Limerick and Dóchas. Design, planning and approvals have also commenced for a large number of these projects. It will also fund planning and commencement of the construction of a new prison at the Thornton site in North County Dublin.
The IPS also aims to recruit up to 100 prison officers and up to 50 staff, and a 19% increase in funding will allow for 210,000 additional staff hours in our prisons.
I am also committed to progressing commitments in the Programme for Government related to the expanded use of community sanctions, which will contribute to reducing prison overcrowding and will improve efforts to rehabilitate offenders. Budget 2026 provides a 13% increase in funding for the Probation Service. This additional funding will be used to increase use of supervised community sanctions in the criminal courts, expand restorative justice services, and expand supervised temporary release schemes nationally.
The Criminal Law and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill was published on 9 January 2026. The Bill includes a number of amendments to the Community Service Act 1983 to encourage greater use of community service orders (CSOs). Under these proposed amendments the maximum number of hours that can be imposed under a community service order will be doubled from 240 to 480 hours. The amendment will also require a court to consider a CSO if a sentence of up to two years is being considered (the current such threshold being one year), and to give reasons if the court considers that a CSO should not be made in any such case.
Work is also under way to develop a pilot bail support policy for women as an alternative to being detained in custody while awaiting trial or sentencing.
The Programme for Government also commits to implement electronic monitoring (EM) for appropriate categories of offender and Budget 2026 allocated funding of €2.1 million for the project to allow for staffing, procurement, and other set-up costs. A Request for Tender (RFT) was published in December with a pilot expected to be operational in 2026.