Saoirse Brady speaks to News at One in an interview given as part of coverage of Irish Prisons Annual Report 2024 Saoilaunch
4th September 2025
In the interview, Saoirse highlighted that:
- Prison must be the sanction of last resort;
- Current overcrowding levels and the use of mattresses on floors are an unacceptable breach of human dignity;
- With 77% of sentences 12 months or less, prison appears to be overused for less serious offences.
- At nearly €100,000 per prison place per year, this approach comes at enormous financial and human cost.
Saoirse emphasised that we cannot build our way out of this crisis. Instead, Ireland must rebalance investment into:
Related items:
- Prisoner numbers on course to reach 'unimaginable' level - The Irish Examiner
- Electronic tags for released prisoners to be trialled - Live 95 (Limerick)
- Number of non-nationals in Irish jails has more than doubled in past five years - Irish Mail on Sunday
- No electronic tagging of prisoners yet despite 2007 law paving the way - Irish Independent
- Urgent calls to address major overcrowding in Limerick Prison - Limerick Post
