Prisons and Alternative Sentencing Options: Statements Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-22 ============================================================ Mary Fitzpatrick (FF), Industrial and Commercial Panel I thank the Minister for coming to the Seanad and for engaging with us on this important matter. I commend him on the work that he and his Department are doing, the seriousness with which they are treating the issue of inadequate capacity in our prisons and the emphasis they are putting on the increased use of non-custodial sentences. It is all to be commended and I support it. Prison will always have a place in our justice system. I firmly believe that. The Minister securing €500 million in funding to increase capacity is welcome. However, I also firmly believe that for non-violent, addiction-driven crime, the drugs court, which has been in operation on a pilot basis in Dublin for almost 25 years, offers a real alternative. Prison is not working. Seven in ten people in our prisons identify as having an addiction. Roughly six out of ten reoffend within three years of having been released from prison. Prison is definitely not working. What it is attempting to do is to punish the crime and the behaviour, but it is not addressing the real causes. There are alternatives, and I acknowledge community service and the Minister's commitment to electronic tagging. However, I believe that the drugs court offers a unique response. It is not a replacement for prison, but it is a credible alternative. The drugs court reduces reoffending, where prison often does not. It combines treatment, supervision and real accountability. It creates a situation where there is real responsibility and not avoidance of responsibility. The drugs court allows prison to be used where it is most effective, which is for those who have committed serious crimes, including violent crimes, but also uses public money more effectively. As Senator Gallagher said, it costs close to €100,000 to keep somebody in prison. It costs less than €10,000 per year to have somebody go through the drugs court. Most importantly, the drugs court saves lives - not just the lives of individuals who have offended but of their families and communities. The risk of relapse and overdose is highest when people are just released from prison. One element of the drugs court is engagement in treatment - that supervision and support. It is not just a court with lawyers; in fact, there are no lawyers because participants are there on a voluntary basis. The judge deals with the offender and there is the support of the Probation Service, education service and welfare services. It supports the individual to recognise and own their behaviour and to engage on a path of recovery. It is incredibly constructive and I advise anybody who has not been down the drugs court to go down some Wednesday and observe it. It keeps people in supervision, reduces harm, supports recovery and in many cases can prevent death. It is not a soft option; it is demanding. I have seen it in action. Those who fail to engage still face consequences which could involve going to prison. I firmly believe the drugs court works. The Government needs to take it from a pilot to having it mainstreamed so that not just people who offend in a non-violent way, suffering from an addiction, have access to it in Dublin. It should be made available nationally. If we are to do that, we need to ensure there will be supports throughout the country. That means multi-annual funding for treatment, probation and the courts. I appreciate that the drugs strategy going through from the Department of Health is driven in a health-led way but there is an opportunity now with the new drugs strategy to ensure addiction treatment exists in every region, that regional drugs courts are established across the State and the model is put on a statutory footing. It is a practical evidence-based model we should support. I urge the Minister in considering alternatives to incarceration to put it on a statutory footing and ensure it is properly funded and made available to everyone who needs it. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-04-22/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:50+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-04-22