Prisons and Alternative Sentencing Options: Statements
Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-22
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Laura Harmon (LAB), Industrial and Commercial Panel

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. This is a very welcome debate and we need to look at prison reform and alternatives. We need to be doing everything we can to keep people out of prison where possible. It is welcome to see more investment and emphasis on probation services as well.
I will talk about a number of issues. First of all, when we talk about prison and people who are in prison, those with a history of addiction and drug use are the norm as opposed to the exception. People who have suffered with addiction are already in prison and this is a doubling-down and an extra prison sentence for them. We cannot have a situation any longer where prisons have to deal with issues we are not dealing with from a public health perspective. We need to improve how we deal with addiction. Ireland has never, in the history of the State, fully dealt with the issue of addiction. We have never had a proper, open, national discussion on addiction. We talk a lot about drugs and that is very important because we need to implement a comprehensive, well-resourced drugs strategy. Many people with addictions are cross-addicted as well. They may have multiple addictions, although it is not always the case. Alcohol is the elephant in the room here and we need to tackle that as a country.
There is a huge disparity between people who have health insurance and those who do not in terms of what rehabilitation they can access and the level and length of treatment. We need to have a national comparative analysis of rehabilitation centres in terms of success rates and how they operate. We need a standardised healthcare approach when we are dealing with the issue of addiction. There is not a family in Ireland not affected in some way by the issue of addiction and there is so much stigma around it that we simply do not talk about it. That is a key area we need to address.
As for overcrowding, Cork Prison is one example among many prisons that are overcrowded. It is frequently operating at about 138% or 139% capacity.
It frequently holds over 400 prisoners when its capacity is 296. Many of the prisoners are sleeping on mattresses. We heard from the Irish Penal Reform Trust as well and we know that many prisoners have limited access to privacy. Many of them share toilets in open spaces and sleep near toilets as well.
There is a complete lack of education in prison. We need to increase the right to education for people who are in prison, as well as the right to more movement. Many prisoners spend more than 16 to 20 hours a day in their cells. That is inhumane. The conditions of some of the prisons in this country are simply inhumane. We absolutely need to deal with this. We need to expand capacity in relation to it. It is welcome that the Minister is looking at this area and at how we can divert people away from prisons and reduce the pressure on the system in terms of overcrowding, as well as having more humane pathways to deal with health issues. We should have the Minister for Health in here as well, because many people in prison are suffering with healthcare issues such as addiction and, of course, mental health, and we need to be talking about that more openly and reducing stigma.

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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