Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan addresses annual Prison Officers’ Association Conference

Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan has today addressed the Prison Officers’ Association (POA) Conference, his first as Minister for Justice. Speaking on the first day conference, Minister O’Callaghan acknowledged the challenges facing prison officers and highlighted the steps he and the government are taking to address them.

Thanking the POA for their collaboration and commitment to high standards, Minister O’Callaghan committed to “taking necessary steps to help [prison officers] succeed in this incredibly rewarding career.”

Speaking about the overcrowding challenges facing the Irish Prison Service, Minister O’Callaghan said:

“While the prison estate is currently expanding, I know it is not expanding at the rate that is urgently needed.

“Since 2022, capacity has been increased by more than 300 new spaces with 139 delivered in the last 12 months alone and more than 90 to be added this year.

“Budget 2025 increased funding to €525 million to tackle overcrowding and increase capacity. This year, the Irish Prison Service capital budget is €53 million, also focused on providing additional prison spaces.”

The Minister spoke about important upcoming legislation – the Criminal Law and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions Bill) 2025 - which will help to ensure prison officer safety and introduce a range of improvements across prison operations:

“I am pleased to tell you that [a] proposal which I intend to bring forward as part of the Miscellaneous Provisions Bill shortly to Cabinet for approval is to amend the law so that prison officers can use incapacitant spray in incidents where their safety is at risk.”

The Minister added:

“This Bill includes a range of measures that will bring welcome changes across a range of areas, improving operational capacity in our prisons and bolstering sentencing options to reduce reliance on custodial sentences.

“This includes a number of proposed amendments to the Community Service Act 1983 to encourage greater use of community service orders for those deemed appropriate.”

The Bill proposes doubling the amount of hours’ service that a judge may order, as well as enabling the Courts to consider community service in lieu of a sentence of up to 24 months, rather than the current 12 months. Where a court elects not to impose a community safety order in eligible cases, it is proposed that it will be obliged to give reasons for this.

Keeping contraband out of prison was also a key focus of the Minister’s address to the POA and its membership, and the Minister spoke about collaborative efforts between the Irish Prison Service and An Garda Síochána:

“The Irish Prison Service continues to work closely with An Garda Síochána on initiatives including Operation Throwover, which has had a lot of success in its goal to disrupt, interdict and prosecute attempts to introduce contraband into prisons.

“Earlier this week, I was pleased to witness the signing of a formal Memorandum of Understanding between the Director General of the IPS Caron McCaffrey and the Garda Commissioner Drew Harris. This MOU will enable both agencies to collaborate more effectively across a range of areas including prison security, intelligence gathering, evidence preservation and data sharing. This collaboration will significantly help to prevent contraband entering prisons.”

Minister O’Callaghan ended by once again thanking the POA for the critical role they play in the justice system, and committed to continuing to work closely with them to improve Irish prisons for both prisoners and prison officers:

“At every turn, the work we are doing is informed, supported and improved by representative groups like the Prison Officers Association and the invaluable perspective of our prison officers.’

“I will continue to listen and work with you to make our criminal justice system safer, fairer, and more effective in keeping Ireland a safe place.”

• the Programme for Government commits to increasing capacity of our prisons by 1,500. This work has already commenced
• an increase of €79 million (18%) was secured in Budget 2025 towards a total of €525 million in funding to increase prison capacity and tackle overcrowding. The Irish Prison Service capital budget is €53 million in 2025, an increase of €22.5 million on the original 2024 allocation, focused on bringing additional prison spaces into the system
• since 2022, capacity across the prison estate has been increased by more than 300 new spaces with over 125 delivered in the last 12 months and over 100 additional spaces to be added this year
• the Irish Prison Service also aims to recruit 300 prison officers in 2025, in addition to the 271 prison officers recruited in 2024
• a Prison Overcrowding Response Group was established in July 2023, composed of officials from the Department of Justice and representatives from relevant agencies. The Group considered measures to address capacity issues in the prison estate. In June 2024, following a report from this Group, a range of actions were agreed and work to implement these is ongoing
• a Working Group was established in the second half of 2024 to further consider future prison capacity needs and to make recommendations on the numbers and types of prison capacity needed out to 2035
• the government is also committed to progressing and implementing policies aimed at increasing the use of community sanctions, reducing offending, diverting people away from the criminal justice system, and providing effective rehabilitation. The Minister for Justice recently approved the publication of the Community Service - New Directions Implementation Plan 2025-2027 by the Probation Service
• the Programme for Government explicitly commits to legislation extending the use of community sanctions and the roll out of the voluntary restorative justice programme