The Minister for Justice has said that her department is considering whether or not to build a new prison at Thornton Hall in north county Dublin to deal with chronic overcrowding in the country's jails.
However, the Prison Officers Association (POA) has said it will not happen and that the minister’s announcement of an additional 670 prison spaces over the next few years is a repeat of what she said last year but nothing happened.
It said that problems in the prison service with overcrowding, drug abuse, attacks on prison officers and drug trafficking are getting worse.
Minister Helen McEntee accepted that overcrowding is a serious issue but said €50m in funding has been approved for prison building and work is due to begin next year.
She said a new review group is being established to make recommendations on future prison developments, including at Thornton Hall.
However, speaking at the POA's annual conference, she also said that part of the reason why the prisons are full is because more judges have been appointed, the courts are sitting longer hours and more criminals are being sent to prison.
There has been an increase of more than 1,000 prisoners in the country's jails since 2019, but the number of additional spaces has only increased by 43, according to prison officers.
The POA said Midlands Prison has 100 more prisoners than it has space for, Cloverhill Prison has 70, Cork Prison, the country's newest, has 52 prisoners sleeping on the floor, while Mountjoy Prison with 845 prisoners has seen a 25% rise in the last five years.
In one wing at Castlerea Prison, every single cell is doubled up with another ten inmates sleeping on the floor.
The POA has also said that the overcrowding situation is as bad for women in prison.
Originally designed for 85 inmates, the Dóchas Centre has 175 inmates, with women being accommodated in offices and locker rooms that were never designed to be cells.
In Limerick's female prison wing, 15 women are sleeping on camp beds.
It also said that the overall number of people in custody is about to reach 5,000.
Mr Power has described the levels of overcrowding as unsafe and unacceptable.
He said their attempts to highlight the issue have consistently fallen on deaf ears.
"Nothing happens," he said, adding that "this is a disgrace".
POA President Tony Power also said that there has been a 25% increase in prisoners in custody over the past five years with levels of overcrowding at unsafe and unacceptable levels.
Mr Power accused Ms McEntee and the Director General of ignoring their concerns and continually failing to address these issues.
He said Ms McEntee and the Director General seem to think prison officers "can just put inmates somewhere and get on with it" and accused them of "directly contributing to an unsafe and unworkable environment" by not properly planning for the future.
He also said in an overcrowded system, without adequate access to services, management were hindering the good work of prison officers and impacting directly on the potential rehabilitation of prisoners.
At the conference, Ms McEntee also accepted that drugs are a serious problem in the country's jails and pointed out that 80% of the inmates have addiction issues.
The POA said drug dealers are using drones to fly drugs into the prison, while the nets at three prisons designed to stop them have fallen down.
The association has also criticised a plan to put modular homes which house one inmate in three jails as costly and ineffective.
It said that the proposal to put ten homes each in Loughan House, Shelton Abbey and Castlerea Prison would cost over €12 million.
Deputy General Secretary Gabriel Keaveny said at a cost of €400,000 per home, it would be cheaper to build each inmate a house.
Mr Keaveny also said that violence in the prison has increased significantly.
He added that restraints, attacks on officers and on prisoners increased by 140% in three years from 376 in 2020, to 891 last year.
