O'Donoghue says new prison spaces will not be filled by those refused bail

The Minister for Justice has said he does not believe new prison spaces will be filled by those refused bail. Mr O'Donoghue repeated the Government's position on the result of the bail referendum, saying the laws could not be implemented until new prison spaces were provided.

He confirmed there had been a record number of prisoners last week, however he denied that the new places would be filled by those refused bail when the laws were enforced. "Predicting how many prison spaces one will require as a result of the bail laws is not an exact science. I don't believe that the implementation of the bail referendum itself will take up all of the places. I would be surprised if that happened."

Cloverhill Prison in Clondalkin, due to be completed next year, would be one of the most important prisons in the State, the Minister said. It would allow for the removal of remand prisoners from Mountjoy. There would be an "easing of pressure in the system" and the "whole question of prison officers' overtime and the ratio of prison officers to prisoners would have to be addressed", he said.

The ratio of one officer per prisoner would be lowered to 0.8 officers per prisoner.

Mr O'Donoghue was speaking after he addressed 144 graduates from the Garda College in Templemore, including Garda Michael Byrne, the son of Garda Commissioner Mr Patrick Byrne.

Mr O'Donoghue welcomed the 10 per cent drop in serious crime in the first six months of this year, a result of crime policies, legislation, the prison-building programme and the appointment of additional judges. On the Garda overtime budget, he said: "Insofar as resources are required, I will not be found wanting in asking Government to provide them."

Further details of the breakdown of the crime figures across all the Garda divisions emerged yesterday. They showed the highest drops of 27 per cent had been in both Dublin East and Cork North in the first six months of the year. Outside Dublin crime rates rose by 11 per cent in Limerick, 12 per cent in Clare, 14 per cent in Longford/Westmeath, 2 per cent in Louth/Meath, 10 per cent in Mayo and 21 per cent in Roscommon and Galway East.