*Prisons in neighbouring Limerick are at full capacity.
TWO CLARE TDs have differing views on ways to tackle overcrowding in prisons.
Recent figures have revealed that prisons in Limerick are at full capacity. Limerick female prison is the most overcrowded in Ireland at 152% with the male prison coming third at 119%. This puts the prisons above larger facilities such as Mount Joy or the Midlands Prison.
Overcrowded prisons are leading to people on bail being out among the public when they shouldn’t be, Donna McGettigan TD (SF) said. “The unfortunate thing about prison overcrowding is that we have a lot of people out on bail, we had shocking figures about that last week in the Dáil,” she told The Clare Echo.
Deputy McGettigan outlined, “With prison overcrowding that means that people are out on bail when they should be probably inside prison”. The Shannon TD added that she was in favour of more preventative measures being used rather than overreliance on prisons, something which is contributing to the ongoing overcrowding crisis.
Earlier releases have been suggested to alleviate the current crisis but McGettigan maintained that “it depends what the person is in for in the first place. Preventative measures would help with people who may not have to go into prison. Sometimes you have people in prison for not serious offences and people out on bail for serious offences, so the whole system needs to be overhauled on that”, she added.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Cathal Crowe TD (FF) said that he is in favour of the electronic tagging of prisoners and pointed out that this is in the current Programme for Government. He is strongly against early releases for prisoners however. “I think we’re very aware that there’s a lack of prison space and yet I don’t believe that releasing prisoners is the answer to that either. Anyone who’s serving a custodial prison sentence is there for good reason”, he added.
Meelick native Crowe said that the legislation was in place for the electronic tagging of prisoners and that it would help Gardaí in their efforts. “I think the Gardaí for a certain period should know where they are and I think it would be very helpful for the guards that these prisoners would be tagged”.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Deputy Crowe outlined, “In the short term, I think that’s a win but we do need more prison spaces. I often speak with members of An Garda Síochána who find it very frustrating that they can spend months pursuing a criminal, they investigate it fully, they bring it before the court, and the judge is left with no choice but to give a suspended sentence”.
Limerick Prison currently has capacity for 286 males and 56 females. It houses male prisoners from Clare, Limerick and Tipperary as well as female prisoners from each of the six Munster counties. The prison employs a number of officers from Clare.
Governor of Mount Joy David Treacy said that the Irish prison system is dealing with an “overcrowding crisis” and warned of the effects on prisoners, including the potential for a rise in prisoner-on-prisoner violence. Figures from the Irish Prison Service (IPS) show that there are now 330 bunk beds and 252 mattresses on floors being used for beds across all prisons. In its annual report for 2023, released in December of last year, the IPS stated that they had advocated €525 million to tackle the issue of overcrowding yet the issue continues to persist in 2025.
“There really needs to be more use of preventative measures rather than using prisons all the time. Overcrowding in any situation whether it’s a prison or not is unacceptable” said McGettigan.
According to Crowe a more affordable prison system is required. “I remember a few years ago during the Celtic Tiger hearing that it was costing €60,000 per annum per prisoner, I think we need to have a leaner prison system that isn’t costing as much. They’ve done this in the US and the UK where they managed to increase their prison spaces. They’ve also managed to uphold standards and yet reduce costs. I think that the money allocated for now is sufficient”.
More money should be allocated, Deputy McGettigan felt. “The money shouldn’t just go back into the prison system, it needs to go into measures outside the prison that prevent people from having to go into prison in the first place”.
