Thurles Information

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.

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.