Saoirse Brady

The prisons budget has been increased by 18 per cent to €525 million in Budget 2025, which the government said will increase prison capacity and tackle overcrowding.

The Department of Justice has said it will complete 155 new prison spaces by the end of 2024 and will create over 1,100 new prison spaces “in the coming years”.

However, the Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) has expressed concern that the budget announcements will not address the critical needs of those who come in contact with the criminal justice system in a meaningful way.

Executive director Saoirse Brady said that “continuing to pour money into a system that is creaking at the seams and creating new prison spaces will do absolutely nothing to address the root causes of criminality or prevent reoffending”.

“Instead, we need to shift our focus and invest in measures that would reduce the number of people in our prison and address the underlying issues that so many people face before they interact with our criminal justice system,” she said.

“Government needs to refocus its efforts to deliver on its own policy commitments to reduce the prison population and support evidence-based alternatives to imprisonment.”

As of yesterday, there were 4,979 people in prison despite there only being capacity of 4,519 people.

“Hundreds of people are currently sleeping on mattresses on the floor or sharing overcrowded cells so the announcement of €53 million towards creating an additional 155 prison spaces by the end of the year will do little to ease today’s overcrowding crisis,” Ms Brady pointed out.

She added: “We know from other countries’ experiences that creating more prison spaces is akin to a self-fulfilling prophecy — the more spaces there are, the more likely they will be filled.

“We saw this here in Ireland when we opened Limerick Women’s Prison in 2023  which has quickly become the most overcrowded prison in the State on a fairly regular basis. We don’t need more of what hasn’t worked.

“Instead, we need to re-imagine our prison system, how we use punishment and how we use our resources to the best effect.”

The IPRT has compared the additional €79 million allocated to the Irish Prison Service (IPS) to the €4 million given to Probation to support alternatives to imprisonment.

Ms Brady said: “Community service and probation supervision provide much more cost-effective interventions that deliver more positive results for individuals, their families and wider society and result in less reoffending.

“The €4 million increase to Probation bringing its budget to €60m in 2025 is very welcome but represents a mere fraction of the funding allocated to the IPS.”