Matt Carthy, An Cathaoirleach: The purpose of this meeting is to have an engagement with the Office of the Inspector of Prisons on the situation in prisons and other related matters. This is a follow-on meeting from a visit the committee had at Limerick Prison prior to Christmas. On behalf of the committee, I welcome from the Office of the Inspector of Prisons Mr. Mark Kelly, Chief Inspector of Prisons; Ms Laura Anderson, Ms Michelle Martyn and Mr. Mark Wolfe, lead inspectors; and Mr. Sam Gluckstein, expert senior adviser on OPCAT implementation. I will invite Chief Inspector Kelly to make an opening statement and then I will invite members of the committee in the order in which they indicate to me to put questions. To manage the committee's time effectively, I propose that each member will have an initial seven minutes to engage with our witnesses. Further to that, we may be in a position to provide second and maybe even subsequent rounds.

Before I invite the opening statement, I wish to advise our guests of the following in relation to parliamentary privilege. Witnesses and members are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice that they should not criticise or make charges against any person or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable or otherwise engage in speech that might be regarded as damaging to the good name of the person or entity. Therefore, if their statements are potentially defamatory in relation to an identifiable person or entity, they will be directed to discontinue their remarks. It is imperative that they comply with any such direction.

I invite Mr. Kelly to make the opening statement

Mr. Mark Kelly: The Cathaoirleach has already been kind enough to introduce our delegation so I do not need to repeat those introductions.

I am an international human rights lawyer by background. I have been Chief Inspector of Prisons since 2022, having previously served in a number of international positions including vice-president of the Council of Europe’s European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, CPT. We are aware that this committee has been concerned about the situation in our prisons for quite some time. The interest shown by the Cathaoirleach and other members of this committee in the content of our annual report for 2024 is very welcome.

It will not come as any surprise to committee members that the situation described in my 2024 report has significantly worsened in the meantime. At the end of 2024, the prison population was 5,001 people for a capacity of 4,531. This was already many hundreds in excess of the numbers that could be safely accommodated. By midnight last night, those numbers had climbed to 5,747, which meant that 608 people living in prison last night were being obliged to sleep on mattresses on the floor.

In the annual report that is before the committee, we document the reality of what that means for living conditions in prisons. The reality is that those conditions can be described as inhuman and degrading and unworthy of Ireland in 2026. I do not use these words lightly. I am also drawing on over 30 years of experience of looking at prison conditions across the 46 member states of the Council of Europe. The conditions for some people living in Ireland’s prisons at the moment are among the worst that I have seen in any place at any time.

In my opening statement, I also refer to the fact that, exceptionally, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture returned to Ireland just before Christmas. It is really unusual that it would come back so quickly after a visit and publication of a critical report, but it came back because of the gravity of its findings. In its report, committee members will find an echo of the words "inhuman and degrading" to describe the conditions in Ireland's prisons.

What is to be done about this situation? My colleagues and I find it somewhat ironic that almost everyone agrees that this situation is completely unacceptable but it continues to worsen day by day. Every time the Irish Prison Service publishes an additional higher figure for prison population, it does so with the caveat that it is obliged to accept every person sent to it by the courts. Every time the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration is challenged about its responses it responds by promising to increase the capacity of the prison estate by building new prison places, which of course will cost a large amount of money and take many years. We are well aware that no comparable jurisdiction has ever succeeded in building its way out of overcrowding. Reducing the current prison population, not building more prison places, should be the priority.

I also wanted to share with the committee a few words about the need to strengthen the independence of my office. The predecessor to this committee, back in 2022 - I think Senator McDowell may be the only member who is still a member of this committee - looked at a general scheme of the inspection of places of detention Bill.

The purpose of that legislation is to expand the mandate of my office but, crucially, also to enhance its independence. By virtue of the Prisons Act 2007, I am independent in terms of my current statutory functions but it is the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, which keeps a very firm control of our budget. Also, it is the Department and the Minister who have the sole discretion on the publication of our reports. In my opening statement I have given a couple of examples. My annual report for 2023 was submitted to the Minister on 29 March 2024 but only published on 28 February 2025. The annual report for 2024, which members have before them, was submitted to the Minister on 31 March 2025 but only published on 6 November 2025. A further 20 reports from my office are currently with the Minister but are unpublished. Yesterday, I received confirmation that reports on five of those inspections will be published this coming Thursday, which is almost ten months after they were originally submitted to the Minister. That confirmation is welcome.

Unfortunately, and very briefly, the legislation to enhance the independence of my office does not seem to be progressing. Today, the Government legislation programme for spring 2026 was published by the Government Chief Whip and the only reference to the legislation is on page 16, which is still listed for priority drafting and not priority publication. This leaves Ireland as a complete outlier within the European Union. Ireland is the only European Union state that has not acted in order to put in place an effective national preventive mechanism, which means that as Ireland approaches its Presidency of the European Union it will be the only member state in that position.

To his credit, the current Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration has acknowledged that resolving this crisis is a political responsibility. He has alluded to the need to enhance community disposals and other alternative sanctions to prison. I note that he repeated at least some of those commitments on the "News At One" today. However, our view is that this is not just the responsibility of any one Minister. It is a whole-of-government responsibility, in particular also including the Minister for Health, given the crisis of mental health in our prisons. We believe that resolving this requires political action to reduce the prison population, place enforceable limits on capacity, strengthen independent oversight, including by our office, and delivering the legislative and policy reforms that have been long promised. All Deputies and Senators who are concerned about human rights and criminal justice can play an active role in ensuring that resolving the crisis in our prisons through political action is given the highest priority. Consequently, we very much welcome this opportunity for further engagement with the Cathaoirleach and this committee. We look forward to all comments and questions

Matt Carthy, An Cathaoirleach:: I thank Mr. Kelly. That is probably the starkest and most frank opening statement that this committee in my time as Cathaoirleach has received. It would be refreshing were the contents not so depressing and frustrating. I will now open up the debate to members who will have a seven-minute slot, if any members wish to indicate. I call Deputy Kelly.

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