At yesterday’s justice committee meeting the chief inspector of prisons, Mr. Mark Kelly, gave the most extraordinary testimony in relation to conditions in prisons in Ireland. He described them as an affront to dignity and later said what is happening in our prison system is almost tantamount to torture. I understand when we talk about improving prison conditions it is often not easy. Many people in prison may have done immense harms in communities. We also have recidivism rates in this country of seven out of ten. That is one of the highest in the EU. The Taoiseach might tell me we are going to build more prisons spaces but even if we included the other 940 prison spaces that are being spoken about, that still will not bring capacity below 100%. Has the Taoiseach a plan for improving prison conditions and outcomes? What we are doing at the moment is very clearly not working and, beyond that, it is cruel.

I mentioned earlier the growth in population in this country over the past two decades. It has been a quite dramatic exponential growth in population. I accept the comments by the inspector of prisons. It is a real issue. It has been growing over the past decade, consequential on the increased population and increased crime. We are now undertaking the fastest-ever expansion of prison capacity in Ireland. That has to happen and it is happening. The money has been allocated. However, I acknowledge that even with that there will still be challenges and pressures on capacity in our prison system. It is absolutely correct that we should have proper facilities and that we should expand capacity.