Ireland’s statutory prisons watchdog, the Office of the Inspector of Prisons (OIP), has today (Friday 2 May 2025) completed an unannounced follow-up inspection of Mountjoy Prison, Dublin. The Inspectorate’s 5-day visit concluded with a formal meeting at which the Inspectorate shared its preliminary findings with senior staff.

The main purpose of this inspection was to follow up on recommendations made in its report on the unannounced general inspection of Mountjoy Prison carried out by the Inspectorate from 28 November to 9 December 2022 (*).

Speaking after the follow-up inspection, Chief Inspector Mr Mark Kelly said:

“The Inspectorate has once again found that many prison staff at Mountjoy Prison make considerable efforts to engage positively with the people in their custody. We also welcome the improvements that have been made to the physical fabric of some areas of this historic building.”

“However, the level of overcrowding in the prison is even worse than during the last inspection. In November/December 2022, there were 750 people in custody at Mountjoy; the prison was operating at 99% capacity, and there were 35 people on mattresses on the floor of single cells. On the first day of this inspection, this had risen to 986 people in custody, with 90 people on mattresses on the floor and more than 200 people on bunks beds in small cells designed for single occupancy.”

“The living conditions for many prisoners held two to a single cell in Mountjoy Prison are deplorable and, at least in some cases, their conditions of detention can be characterised as inhuman and degrading”.

The follow-up inspection visit was carried out by:

  • Mark Kelly, Chief Inspector
  • Michelle Martyn, Lead Inspector
  • Laura Anderson, Inspector
  • Matthew Butterly, Inspector
  • Dr. Sarah Curristan, Inspector
  • Orla Dick, Inspector

The Inspectorate of Prisons was assisted by Yvonne Ní Mhurchu and Caroline O’Shea, from the Department of Education Inspectorate. (**)

Notes to the Editor

The Office of the Inspector of Prisons is a statutory body, independent in how it carries out its work, set up under the Prisons Act 2007.

The law underpinning the role of Chief Inspector of Prisons is set out in Part 5, Sections 30 to 32 of the Prisons Act 2007. Section 30 provides for the appointment of the Chief Inspector, Section 31 sets out the functions of the Chief Inspector and Section 32 specifies the requirement to submit an Annual Report to the Minister for Justice, by 31 March in any year. The Inspectorate’s Annual Report for 2024 was submitted to the Minister on 31 March 2025. Section 32(3) of the Act provides that, “as soon as practicable” after receiving the Annual Report, the Minister for Justice shall “cause a copy of it to be laid before each House of the Oireachtas and to be published”.

Under Section 31 of the Act, the Chief Inspector of Prisons is obliged to carry out regular inspections of prisons and for this purpose may: at any time enter any prison or any part of a prison, request and obtain from the Governor a copy of any books, records, other documents or extracts from such documents, and, in the course of an inspection or arising out of an inspection bring any issues of concern to the notice of the governor of the prison concerned, the Director General of the Irish Prison Service or the Minister as the Chief Inspector considers appropriate.

The Chief Inspector may, and must if he receives a request from the Minister, investigate any matter arising out of the management or operation of a prison and shall submit to the Minister a report on any such investigation.

Governors, prison officers, other persons employed in prisons and prisoners, must as far as reasonably practicable, comply with any request for information that the Chief Inspector may make in the performance of his functions.

Since 2012, the Chief Inspector has also been obliged to investigate the circumstances of all deaths in custody and those within one month of temporary release from custody.

In addition to the legislative authority derived from the Act, the Chief Inspector has specified functions under Prison Rules 2007-2013 in relation to the Irish Prison Service Prisoner Complaints Procedure (Rule 57B) and letters from prisoners (Rule 44 (1) (h)).

It is anticipated that, in the near future, the Inspectorate will become the Inspectorate of Places of Detention, with an expanded remit as the National Preventive Mechanism for the Justice sector under the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Torture (OPCAT).

(*) The Inspectorate’s report on its unannounced general inspection of Mountjoy Prison from 28 November to 9 December 2022 has been submitted to the Minister for Justice. Publication of the Inspectorate’s reports is a matter for the Minister.

(**) The OIP has concluded a Memorandum of Agreement with the Inspectorate of the Department of Education, enabling it to benefit from the expertise of colleagues from that Inspectorate when assessing educational provision in prisons.

For further information, please see: www.oip.ie