Criminal Law, Civil Law and Defence (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026: Committee Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-24
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Lynn Ruane (IND), University of Dublin

I thank the Minister for his comprehensive contribution. I disagree with some parts in relation to focusing only on an increase in population as a cause for overcrowding. The Minister's Department is going to support policies and changes which he has announced in relation to community sanctions, which acknowledges that prison is overused. In certain years, between 68% to 75% of people in prison are there for minor convictions. In terms of overcrowding, a greater cause for concern than the population rise is the overuse of sentences of less than 12 months. Nobody receives an intervention in less than 12 months in Irish prisons, regardless of how much work is happening in the prison. Addiction waiting lists are extremely long. A person will not see a psychologist within that 12 months. Whatever the Minister's comments on the rise in population being the reason, I cannot allow that alone to stand as the reason. It would be good for the Minister to acknowledge that we can also reduce the prison population through how we actually do justice in relation to those community sanction pieces. That would drastically reduce overcrowding, regardless of whether I agree with more infrastructure. My goal would obviously be a world where we do not need prisons at all. While I am not completely naive, I do not support such numbers of people receiving prison sentences for relatively minor convictions where they will not actually receive any sort of rehabilitative measures within that year. If anything, it grows their criminality because people and young people are exposed to all sorts of people from other communities. People often say when they come out of prison from shorter sentences that their engagement in criminality begins again and that they have made wider connections. It is no use. I would like that point to exist there.
Not to undermine the professionalism of prison officers but I am not sure whether the Minister is aware - he probably is - of the recent report from the Council of Europe's committee for the prevention of torture, which raised serious concerns around the under-development of training of Irish prison officers in relation to physical restraint, that is, without a weapon or incapacitant spray. The committee for the prevention of torture has already stated that our prison officers are not trained properly on the use of force. I am not saying that is the fault of the prison officers, whether it is down to the training or how people are taught, I do not know the answer to that. That fact exists that we are now going to layer on an incapacitant spray without addressing what the Council of Europe's committee stated, which was that there is a serious concern in how Irish prison officers currently use restraint. We would probably be better off investing in how we adequately train prison officers in de-escalation and safer restraint as a first step before we consider incapacitant sprays. At this stage, I am not going to convince the Minister to change or review his opinion on the amendments. However, I would like the Minister to acknowledge that population increase is not the primary or only cause of overcrowding in the Prison Service.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:06+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-24