The Chief Inspector of Prisons has described the overcrowded conditions for prisoners as inhuman, degrading, an affront to human dignity and unworthy of Ireland in 2026.
Mark Kelly will tell the Oireachtas Committee on Justice that the current conditions for some people living in Ireland's prisons are amongst the worst that he has ever seen anywhere, at any time.
He will also say that even though everyone accepts that the current situation is unacceptable, it continues to worsen every day.
By the end of 2024, the prison population was over 5,000, almost 300 in excess of the numbers that could be safely accommodated.
The current capacity is 4,718, but last night 5,747 people were in prison and over 600 were obliged to sleep on mattresses on the floor, an overcrowding ratio of 122%.
The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture returned to Ireland just before Christmas to re-examine the situation, four months after it published a highly critical report based on inspections carried out 18 months ago.
The report said there were overcrowded cells where "three or four prisoners were held in cramped, squalid spaces with insufficient ventilation" and that "many prisoners, including mentally ill individuals, were forced to sleep on mattresses or flimsy camp beds".
The chief inspector will say that an enforceable ceiling on the number of people who can safely be held in each of the prisons must be enforced and that "reducing the current prison population, not building more prisons, should be the priority".
Mr Kelly will also call for greater independence for his office which, he says, is undermined by the fact that he is funded by the Department of Justice and that the minister decides when his reports can be published.
He will point out that his annual report for 2023 was only published in February 2025, 11 months after it had been submitted, while last year's report was published over six months later.
He will also say that 20 more of his reports (reports on seven inspections and 13 deaths in custody investigations) remain with the minister and are, as yet, unpublished.
The Chief Inspector will tell TDs and Senators that the 2022 Inspection of Places of Detention Bill to expand the mandate of the office to include monitoring all places of detention across the criminal justice system - including garda stations, court holding cells and detainee/prisoner transport - "continues to languish in the Office of Parliamentary Counsel and has yet to see the light of day".
Mr Kelly will also say that the current overcrowding crisis was "wholly incompatible with Ireland's legal commitments at national, European and international level" and that "resolving this crisis requires political action to reduce the prison population, to place enforceable limits on capacity, to strengthen independent oversight, and to deliver the legislative and policy reforms that have long been promised".
