Prisons and Alternative Sentencing Options: Statements Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-22 ============================================================ Martin Conway (IND), Administrative Panel I echo Senator Boyhan's commendation of the Minister regarding his coming before the House. Lots of Ministers send in junior Ministers. While they have a very important role to play, it is great to engage with the senior Minister. I thank Senator Boyhan for proposing that we have this debate. The situation in Irish prisons is completely unacceptable, as I think the Minister agrees. There are two ways of dealing with it. The obvious one is capacity. We have a growing population, so we are clearly going to have a growing prison population as well. Sadly, it does go hand in hand that the more people we have, the more likely it is that there is going to be a requirement for additional prison spaces. I think we are dealing with that with an extra €60 million or €70 million this year. Perhaps it is not at the level we would like, but I am aware of the Minister's commitment to this. I would absolutely support him in any calls he makes for additional funding to deal with it, particularly in the in the context of women's prisons and the incarceration of women. The situation in Limerick is particularly troubling. I echo Senator Rabbitte's comments. An excellent female prison is now part of the campus in Limerick. Unfortunately, however, it is way overcrowded. That is only opened a couple of years so clearly there is an urgent need to address this issue. Back in March 2013 in this House, I tabled a Private Member's motion on restorative justice. I was Fine Gael spokesperson on justice at the time. I did it on the basis of a very successful pilot programme in south County Dublin, in the Tallaght area, and in the Nenagh area of north Tipperary. Restorative justice practices were piloted in these areas. It showed clear evidence that there was a 70% reduction in people reoffending. When the restorative practices were engaged with and it was done in a structured and professional way, it clearly resulted in a drop in crime. When a young fellow robs a handbag from a lady and does not realise the devastating impact that has on that person's life, when they do eventually come face to face under proper structures, and that chap understands the impact it has had, it does lead to a reduction in reoffending. It is proven the world over that restorative practices work. Furthermore, in February 2014 I tabled a Private Member's motion in this Chamber on the need for Dublin to look at a community court similar to the community court in Times Square in New York, which completely reduced the crime levels there. It was kind of a one-stop shop in terms of addiction services, courts services, financial supports, advice and so on. Again, the Senators who where here at the time supported the motion unanimously. It was a different time and there was financial difficulty in the country, so the resources were not there but the policy was accepted as a good policy. The concept of a pilot community court in Dublin was supported at the time by the Minister. Unfortunately, it has not happened. Twelve years later, there has not been a pilot. The Courts Service does great work and the addiction services do great work, as do the homeless and housing services. However, they could be knitted together in a one-stop-shop scenario in circumstances where some of the justice issues are clearly health issues and should not really be categorised as relating to the area of justice. We have had the debate on many occasions regarding instances where people are found guilty of drug possession and so on and that this should be looked at as a health issue in the first instance. I think Governments are very much coming around to that school of thought. The justice committee at the time did some very good work both on restorative justice and on the concept of community courts. I want to put it to the Minister that maybe it is an appropriate time to look at a community court in Dublin city and at expanding nationally the very successful pilot programme on restorative justice that was rolled out in south Dublin and Tipperary, as was agreed unanimously by the Members of this House back in 2013 and 2014. --- 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