Securing Our Future – Programme for Government 2025+
21st January 2025
What is in the Programme for Government on penal reform?
The Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) welcomes the clear focus on community-based sanctions in Securing Ireland’s Future, the Programme for Government, but airs concerns about other measures included and agreed between Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and TDs in the Regional Independent Group. The draft was published on 15 January and has since been approved and adopted by both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael members.
The restated commitment to ratify the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention Against Torture (OPCAT) is particularly welcome. IPRT also believes that the reference to extending the use of community sanctions as an alternative to imprisonment where possible, if implemented by the next government, will result in better outcomes and help build safer and more equal communities for everyone. However, IPRT continues to be completely opposed to the commitment to build a super-prison at the Thornton Hall site.
In advance of the 2024 General Election, IPRT campaigned vigorously on ten proposals for candidates and parties to include in their manifestos and their campaigns. Since the election, IPRT continued to advocate for six key recommendations for inclusion in the Programme for Government 2025+. It is heartening that some of these priorities, have made it into the Programme for Government. This, in no small part, is due to successful collaborative working and information sharing with other civil society groups, academics, and IPRT supporters.
Commitments reflecting IPRT’s General Election asks:
The Programme for Government 2025 also includes other key commitments that IPRT believes could – if underpinned by a human rights framework - result in a fairer, and more progressive and more efficient and effective penal system, including:
- Re-establish the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Drugs Use and ensure that the Department of Health and the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration work collaboratively on any recommendations issued by the Committee.
- Implement an employment strategy for former offenders and support increased access to education and training workshops through the Prison Education Taskforce.
- Reform the operation of Prison Visiting Committees.
- Ensure comprehensive support services for victims.
- Implement electronic warrants and fully digitalise the system of recording sentences and release dates.
- Complete a comprehensive review of the criminal justice system within 12 months and publish an action plan to improve efficiency, remove blockages and cut waiting times.
- Despite our calls to halt prison expansion and take an evidence-informed approach unfortunately, the inclusion of the following measures, goes directly against the evidence-based calls we made:
- Construct a new prison at Thornton Hall, expand existing prison capacity by 1,500 spaces.
- Enact legislation to establish minimum tariffs for any crime that carries a life sentence.
- Provide a new power to the Minister to ask the Judicial Council to draw up sentencing guidelines for a particular crime area within a certain timeframe.
There are also a number of measures that we will need to analyse in more detail before providing a detailed response including:
- Implement electronic tagging for appropriate categories of prisoner.
- Establish a high dependency unit in the Irish Prison Service to address severe mental health and addiction challenges and hire more therapeutic and medical staff, including psychiatric nurses.
- Introduce advanced x-ray body scanners for visitors to our prisons.
- Review and update the Public Order Acts, including in relation to sentencing, and ensure Gardaí have the power they need to manage public order situations effectively.
- Establish an offender specific database, bringing together data from the Courts, Prison and Probation Services, the Gardaí, the DPP and the CSO, and ensure key sentencing and justice indicators are published at regular intervals.
- Review the sentences for those involved in the supply of drugs to ensure that the punishment imposed reflects the destruction and devastation that those drugs impose on our communities.
The Programme for Government is also missing some key commitments that IPRT had been advocating for:
- A commitment to developing a whole-of-government strategy to support and promote rehabilitation and reintegration and taking practical measures to remove barriers for people with a conviction.
- A commitment to more investment in preventative measures that will reduce the number of people in prison.
- A commitment to developing an interdepartmental strategy to support children with a parent in prison.
- A commitment to prioritising the roll-out of a long-overdue revised prisoner complaints system.
IPRT looks forward to working constructively with the next government and all stakeholders in order to progress action on these areas. IPRT will continue to be a strong independent voice in holding the State to account in realising their commitments.
Of course, much more needs to be done to ensure a fair and humane penal system in Ireland (see our Progress in the Penal System 'PIPS' reports). Although some of these commitments are welcome, we will continue to campaign against regressive criminal justice proposals, such as prison expansion and Thornton Hall, and continue to counter any such proposals with evidence and research. We will continue to work with all Oireachtas members towards achieving a world-class penal system in Ireland – one that respects the human rights of everyone and uses imprisonment only as a sanction of last resort.
