Gunda Wössner, second vice-president of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), spoke in Dublin this morning at a joint meeting with the Office of the Inspector of Prisons (OIP).

“Ireland’s authorities have failed to take adequate and timely action to address a number of longstanding recommendations by the CPT, particularly on overcrowding, poor mental healthcare, complaints mechanisms, and unsafe conditions across places of detention,” she said.

The CPT’s report on its 2024 visit to Ireland found chronic overcrowding, deteriorating safety, widespread inter-prisoner violence, and allegations of staff abuse. It also identified serious mental healthcare failures, including the detention of severely mentally ill prisoners in conditions described as “degrading”.

The CPT has again called on Ireland to ratify the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture (OPCAT) and to establish a fully-resourced national preventive mechanism (NPM) without delay, allowing to have a preventive approach to dealing with risks of ill-treatment.

The CPT’s findings were discussed today at the joint event hosted by the OIP and the Council of Europe, bringing together oversight bodies, civil society organisations, and government representatives.

The meeting, organised with support from the European Commission, focused on implementing the CPT’s recommendations and strengthening oversight as Ireland moves towards the establishment of an NPM.

Mark Kelly, chief inspector of prisons and chief inspector designate of places of detention, said: “In some prisons, people are being held three or even four to a cell, little bigger than a car parking space, with one sleeping on a mattress on the floor.

“All of them confined in this space next to an open toilet, sometimes for up to 23 hours a day. Sleeping, eating, drinking and performing every other bodily function in that space, day after day.

“This is inhuman, degrading, and unworthy of Ireland in 2025.”

He added: “Ireland’s prison system has breached its capacity. More than 500 people are currently being obliged to sleep on mattresses on the floor. As the Inspectorate and the CPT have repeatedly emphasised, no comparable jurisdiction has ever succeeded in building its way out of an overcrowding crisis of this amplitude. Urgent action is required at the highest political level to address this problem.”

The CPT’s report and the Irish government’s response were published in July this year.

The discussion in Dublin is part of a wider EU–Council of Europe co-funded project aimed at supporting Ireland in its preparation for the OPCAT ratification and the establishment of an NPM.

The event marks an important milestone in Ireland’s journey towards ratification of the Optional Protocol, with the Office of the Inspector of Prisons set to play a central role in the future NPM for the criminal justice system, providing independent national oversight of conditions in all places of deprivation of liberty.