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Minister for Justice Mr Jim O’Callaghan has today addressed the Prison Officers’ Association (POA) Conference in Galway this morning; his first as Minister for Justice. Speaking on the first day of the 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.”
Meanwhile, POA President Mr Tony Power, in addressing the conference at the Galmont Hotel, urged the Minister to immediately address prison overcrowding.
The POA confirmed that this issue was causing a ‘potentially explosive situation’ as there are 5,344 people in custody, with 358 of those prisoners sleeping on mattresses on floors.
Speaking about 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:
Incapacitant Spray Where Prison Officer Safety At Risk.
The Minister stated “I am pleased to tell you that a proposal which I intend to bring forward shortly to Cabinet for approval, as part of the Miscellaneous Provisions Bill, 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.
He continued, “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.”
“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”, he concluded
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.
Gardaí and the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) are investigating the sudden death of a 64 year old man, whose body was discovered on a farm near Ardfinnan in South Tipperary on Tuesday morning last, 29th April 2025.
Emergency services were called to the scene at around 11:30am, where the man locally named as Mathew ‘Mattie’ O’Brien, was pronounced dead.
Mr O’Brien was originally from Curanna, Golden in Co Tipperary, but he had been living with his partner Catherine at The Cross, Ardfinnan, South Co. Tipperary for a number of years.
His remains have since been removed to University Hospital Waterford to undergo a post-mortem examination, which will determine the direction of any further ongoing Garda investigations.
According to Gardaí, initial findings suggest no signs of foul play and one line of their inquiry suggests that Mr O’Brien may have fallen off a roof he was repairing.
The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) were notified and they have begun an inquiry into the incident. The local coroner has also been informed, and a report is expected to be compiled for the Coroner’s Court.
Mr O’Brien is survived by his partner Catherine, brothers William, John, Dermot and Tom, sister Mary, Catherine’s three children; Catriona, James and Joseph.
The remains of Mr O’Brien will repose at Costigan’s Funeral Home, Cahir, Co. Tipperary on Friday evening next, May 2nd, from 6:00pm until 7:30pm.
Requiem Mass for Mr O’Brien will be celebrated on Saturday May 3rd, at 2:00pm in St. Mary’s Church, Cahir, followed by interment in the adjoining graveyard.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.
Cabinet approval secured to progress legislation that will lead to the most significant reform of Irish asylum laws in the history of the Irish State, in line with the EU Migration and Asylum Pact.
This Pact is a new EU framework to manage migration and asylum for the long-term. The overall objective of the Pact is to provide a fair, sustainable and efficient asylum procedure. This will be achieved through convergence in asylum practices across the EU.
As part of this, the General Scheme of the International Protection Bill 2025 is intended to replace the International Protection Act 2015.
This approval by Cabinet will allow for the publication of the General Scheme and referral of the General Scheme to the relevant Oireachtas Committee for pre-legislative scrutiny and for the drafting of the new Bill.
The current international protection system is not working effectively, with decisions taking far too long. This Pact now offers an opportunity both here in Ireland and across the EU to reset the system and is an important next step in one of the most significant reforms of Irish asylum law in decades.
It is the governments belief that implementing a firmer migration system is now a key element in protecting the integrity of our immigration framework, while supporting those in need of international protection. This new legislation will facilitate the new changes that will be introduced.
These important changes are expected to include streamlining the decisions process; streamlining the returns process; a new ‘Border procedure’ with a three-month time limit for decisions, and a new institutional arrangements for international protection decisions and appeals.
It is also proposed that oral hearings of appeals will be significantly more limited than at present under the International Protection Act 2015. Fewer oral hearings at appeal stage will allow decisions to be made without the need for applicants, legal representatives and translators all to be present.
Appeal officers will make decisions based on the information on file, from the initial decision, and any additional written information submitted in the appeal process. This will drive efficiency and time savings. These reforms will continue to ensure the rights of applicants, under EU and Irish law, to be heard in the application process and to have an effective remedy in the appeal process.
These changes are ultimately about giving those who are entitled to international protection the opportunity to rebuild their lives here quickly and, at the same time, ensure faster removals in respect of those who do not meet the necessary criteria.
The proposed legislation delivers on the Programme for Government commitment to “Implement the new EU Migration and Asylum Pact through a new International Protection Act.”
Over the 2025 Easter bank holiday weekend, a Garda roads policing operation was put in place countrywide, between 7:00am on Thursday last, April 17th last, and 7:00am today, Tuesday, April 22nd. During this Garda Operation 2800 drivers were detected for speeding offences.
During the above stated period, sadly, there were three fatalities, including that of a four-year-old boy; together with 11 other serious traffic accidents on our Irish roads, resulting in a total of 12 persons being the subject of serious life-threatening injuries.
Police officers carried out more than 912 mandatory intoxicant testing checkpoints over the same stated holiday period, which saw some 4,500 breath tests and 213 oral fluid tests being performed; leading to 149 arrests for driving under the influence of an intoxicant.
Fixed Charge Offences detected during this period included:-
Divers exceeding the speed limit → 2800
No seatbelts → 73.
Using Mobile Phones → 225.
Unaccompanied learner drivers → at least 160.
Vehicles seized for having no tax or insurance → 438.
Vehicles seized from learner permit holders driving unaccompanied → 109.
Speeds detected in some county speed zones:-
110km/h in a 50Km/h zone on the Naas Road, Dublin 12, Co. Dublin.
165km/h in a 100Km/h zone on N18 Ballinacurra (Weston), in neighbouring Co Limerick.
179km/h in a 60km/h zone on R194 Granard, Co Longford.
139km/h in a 80km/h zone on R157 Dunboyne, Co Meath.
125km/h in a 50Km/h zone on R394 Milltown Castlepollard, Co. Westmeath.
80km/h in a 50km/h zone on Ballymount Road, Dublin 24
Families should note that one in three people, who have lost their lives on Irish roads this year, were under the age of 30 years.
Statement On The Agreement Of Memorandum of Understanding On The Omagh Bombing Inquiry.
The Irish Government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Chairman of the Inquiry, Lord Alan Turnbull PC, (PC Scottish lawyer, Senator of the College of Justice, and a judge of the country’s Supreme Courts), on matters relating to the disclosure of materials to the Omagh Bombing Inquiry.
On June 12th 2023, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Right Honourable Mr Chris Heaton-Harris (British former senior politician), announced that Lord Turnbull would chair the Omagh Bombing Inquiry, due to Lord Turnbull’s previous experience of working on terrorism cases.
The Irish Government authorised the signature at its meeting earlier today.
The Omagh bombing was a car bombing on August 15th 1998, which took place in the town of Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It was carried out by the Real IRA, latter a Provisional Irish Republican Army splinter group, who opposed the IRA’s ceasefire and the Good Friday Agreement/Belfast Agreement, which had been signed earlier on Good Friday, 10th April of that year.
The victims of the bombing included people of many backgrounds and ages, both Protestants and Catholics, unionists and Irish nationalists were killed, including six teenagers, six children, a woman pregnant with twins, two Spanish tourists and others visiting on a day trip from the Republic of Ireland. As a result of the bombing, new anti-terrorism laws were swiftly enacted by both the United Kingdom and Ireland.
This agreement reflects the Government’s decision, in July 2024, to assist this Inquiry to the extent that is permissible under the Irish Constitution and laws of the Irish State. The Programme for Government reiterates that commitment, stating that they will play their full part in legacy processes, including facilitating and supporting this Omagh Inquiry.
This Memorandum sets out the working arrangements that will apply between the Inquiry and the office of the Minister for Justice on the lawful disclosure of materials from Government Departments and their agencies to the Inquiry, thus assisting it in carrying out its terms of reference. It also addresses the onward disclosure of those materials and their destruction or retention at the conclusion of the work of the Inquiry.
As recorded in the Memorandum a central point of contact has been established in the Department of Justice to receive and manage all requests for materials from this Inquiry. The Minister’s Department and the Inquiry will maintain regular contact to support the operation of the Memorandum.
The Minister’s Department will also continue to engage with the Inquiry to find solutions consistent with Irish law to fulfil the Government’s commitment to assisting the Inquiry. This includes the giving of oral testimony for the purposes of the Inquiry. The Government has made it clear, that should it be necessary to bring forward legislation to support this assistance to the Inquiry, then this will be undertaken.
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