Lack of clarity over budget funding for addiction and mental health supports in prisons

Upwards of 70 percent of people incarcerated in Irish prisons have some form of substance addiction, according to the Irish Prison Service (IPS).

“If you look at what we would call the general population, it's almost impossible to find somebody who hasn't or doesn't use drugs in prison in the ordinary population,” Eddie Mullins, former governor of Mountjoy Prison, has said.

But wait list times for counselling services are long, leaving treatment out of reach for many while incarcerated.

Last month, figures from the IPS revealed that 25 percent of men – more than 240 people – incarcerated in Mountjoy Prison are on a waiting list to receive treatment for substance addiction.

One recommendation of the Citizens Assembly on Drug Use, published last year, was that the Department of Justice and the IPS should develop and fund enhanced prison-based addiction treatment services to tackle these wait lists.

When the supports aren’t there, either in prison or in the community, it can be incredibly difficult for someone to get their life back on track, says Mullins.

Does the Department of Justice plan to increase funding in the new budget for addiction services in prisons?

At a press conference at Leinster House on Wednesday, Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan did not give a clear answer.

Money for addiction treatment

At a press conference on 8 October, O’Callaghan, a Fianna Fáil TD, said that the 70 percent figure of incarcerated people having addiction issues is correct.

Since he became Minister for Justice in January, he has visited several prisons and seen a lot of people in need of those supports, he said.

While a lot of good work goes on in prisons in that regard, O’Callaghan said, it’s not where he would like it to be.

A lot of funding for addiction supports comes from the Department of Health, he says.

Having spoken to colleague Fianna Fáil TD Jennifer Murnane O’Connor, Minister of State at the Department of Health, he says that funding is available.

But, he didn’t say how the funding for addiction supports for people in prison in Budget 2026 will compare to funding available in previous years.

In 2023, Helen McEntee, the Fine Gael TD who was then Minister for Justice, said in the Dáil that “in excess of €1.5 million of the prisoner healthcare budget is spent each year on addiction treatment across the prison estate”.

In Budget 2026, the total budget for the IPS is almost €579 million.

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).

“But we don't know if there's been an increase particularly for addiction services,” she said.

Neither the Department of Justice nor the Department of Health have responded yet to queries sent yesterday asking for greater detail on what money would be allocated to addiction services in Budget 2026.

A spokesperson for the IPS said that while it gave €1.4million to Merchants Quay Ireland [for addiction services] in 2024, the allocation of the budget for 2026 will be discussed by senior prison management and decided upon in the coming weeks.

Mental-health treatment

In June, 565 of the people in custody at Mountjoy (60 percent) were on a waiting list to receive mental health treatment, according to IPS figures.

The National Forensic Mental Health Service (NFMHS) provide mental health services in Irish prisons, and is funded by the HSE, a spokesperson for the IPS said Thursday.

Neither the Department of Justice nor Department of Health have responded yet to queries sent yesterday asking for greater detail on what money would be allocated to mental health supports in Irish prisons in 2026.

The IPS has gone to tender twice to try and get somebody to do this deep-dive assessment on the mental-health needs of people in Irish prisons, says Brady, of the IPRT.

However, nobody suitable was found, she says, likely because enough money wasn’t there to pay for it. So in its pre-budget submission, the IPRT called for the allocation of €1 million in Budget 2026 for the study.

“To do that properly, for them to engage somebody with the expertise to be able to do that because we don't have accurate, up-to-date data on mental health needs,” Brady says.

Such a mental health needs assessment would set the baseline to know what supports and interventions are needed in prisons, where to better invest limited resources and give a greater understanding of who is coming into prison, says Brady.

She says that things are gradually improving, however. In the last year or so the IPS has recruited a clinical lead for mental health and addiction, to oversee dual diagnosis.

Very often, says Brady, mental health issues are dealt with in silos, but are often related.

“We know so many people who end up in the criminal justice system have experienced trauma, have experienced a mental health crisis, have engaged in substance misuse,” Brady says.

Increased staffing

A huge roadblock for incarcerated people trying to access therapeutic supports is the issue of understaffing, says Mullins.

The former governor of Mountjoy is now CEO of Merchants Quay Ireland (MQI), which is contracted by the IPS to provide addiction counselling in prisons.

“If you're a prison governor, you go in in the morning, and you're supposed to have 150 staff, and you've only 100 staff, which wouldn't be unusual,” he said in August.

“You have to prioritise all of the security posts. You have to prioritise all of the escorts,” he said.

This means that on any given day, all addiction supports and mental health counselling, along with education programmes, can all end up closed, he said.

Budget 2026 will “allow for the recruitment of up to 100 additional Prison Officers and up to 50 additional staff, on a phased basis”, a statement from O’Callaghan says.

Overcrowding

Brady, of the IPRT, says that another barrier to people in prison getting the addiction and mental health services they need is overcrowding.

“None of those issues are really getting dealt with adequately currently within the prison system because of the overcrowding,” she says.

O’Callaghan said at the press conference at Leinster House on Wednesday, that the “only option” available to him as Minister for Justice, to address overcrowding, is to “ensure we get more prison spaces constructed as quickly as possible”.

As the government rolled out Budget 2026, it announced €67.9 million in capital funding to ensure 1,595 additional prison spaces by 2031.

It says it will also develop a masterplan in 2026 for the Thornton Hall campus.

The masterplan will include the construction of a new prison, International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) and additional Garda facilities all on the site.

On Wednesday, O’Callaghan said that more prison spaces are needed because Ireland’s population is increasing.

But Brady, of the IPRT, says that building more prison spaces doesn’t necessarily reduce overcrowding in prisons.

She points to research by Keith Adams at the Jesuit Centre for Faith & Justice, published in April 2024.

Between the census years of 2016 and 2022, the female population in Ireland increased by 8.2 percent, while the official capacity for women in prison increased by 30.9 percent, Adams notes.

This, he argues, should mean overcrowding in women’s prisons is no longer a problem, but yet, it is.

“With the opening of the new women’s prison in Limerick last year – which brought total capacity for women up to 202 beds – we are actually seeing an intensification of overcrowding,” writes Adams.

If more prison spaces are built, people are found to put in them, says Brady.

“We need to be putting in place those preventative, early intervention mechanisms. And we need to be looking at, what stops crime in the first place?” she says.

At Leinster House, O’Callaghan said that one way of preventing people from ending up in prison was ensuring there are adequate services within the community to enable them to deal with their addiction.

“Because regrettably, very many people get into criminal activity and commit crimes because of their addiction,” he says.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.