Lack of clarity over budget funding for addiction and mental health supports in prisons
10th October 2025
This article highlights ongoing uncertainty over government funding for addiction and mental-health supports in Irish prisons, despite severe demand and long waiting lists.
The Irish Prison Service has to have some flexibility in how it uses its money, says Saoirse Brady, executive director of the Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT). “We don’t know if there’s been an increase particularly for addiction services.” She noted that the Irish Prison Service has twice failed to secure a contractor to carry out a mental-health needs assessment, likely due to limited funding and renewed IPRT’s call for €1 million in Budget 2026 to fund that essential study.
Click hereto read the full article.
Related items:
- IPRT presented to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Migration on Pre-legislative scrutiny of the General Scheme: Criminal Law and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2025
- Children's Ombudsman calls to extend youth justice sanctions to adults under 24
- Prisons today Alternative sentences for most prisoners? Podcast Interview on Near FM with Saoirse Brady
- Niamh McCormack spoke to Angela Noone-Faull of CRCfm in Mayo on The Chatroom,
- Prison overcrowding crisis has deepened further this year