I went to Limerick Prison yesterday with the justice committee. We were given a presentation with some very stark numbers. It costs €97,000 a year to house an inmate in Limerick Prison. Between 4% and 11% of the general population in Ireland has a personality disorder. For inmates in prison, that figure is 60% to 70%. There is a trend there. The female prisoners in Limerick Prison have said they feel safer going into Limerick Prison because they come from domestic abuse and coercion in their homes. They actually feel like they are in a safe place when they get into Limerick Prison. A lot of the time the judges are sending them to prison as a protection.

What I took from the entire visit was that early intervention is key in this country, whether that is on the justice side, the health side or the educational side. We were told that if 80% to 90% of the inmates had been caught between 14 and 16 years of age and given early intervention, whether through youth diversion or for mental health needs they may have had, they would never have ended up in prison. It is fairly stark when we think it costs €97,000 a year for each inmate in Limerick Prison. That is a lot of money. Could we not look at investing in our children and in these early interventions, whether it is mental health or youth diversion? I know we have some really good youth diversion programmes. We have one in Rathkeale in County Limerick and they do amazing work. All these things need to be ramped up. We need to look at the start of the process and not putting them into prison and paying that kind of money.

They also have staffing issues in Limerick Prison. When they have to take inmates to court for little things like sentencing dates or pushing things out or adjournments, it can take them a whole day to transport them and get them back to prison. Prison officers have to travel with them, whereas they could do video links for these five- or ten-minute sessions which would not require any staff, but when those staff have to leave the campus, that is pulling the staff from the schooling and workshops they do and from the doctors and the dentists, so they cannot have a doctor or a dentist there. The dentist that was there yesterday told us he is only there once every two weeks. If the staff get pulled from him, he cannot bring inmates in to look at their dental issues, so that is a full month that an inmate is going to be sitting there waiting with pain in their teeth or whatever their issue is. I would love to have a debate in the House on early intervention and the possible ramping up in all sectors, not just the justice sector but also health and education.