Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration Jim O'Callaghan has officially turned the sod on the second phase of the Castlerea Grove Housing Development Project. The project is currently under construction and is designed to provide 126 spaces through the creation of 21 new housing units.

This follows the completion of Phase One, which was finished within a 12-month period and provided new staff offices alongside 24 additional prison spaces. Once the entire project is finished, the total capacity of Castlerea Prison will have increased by 150 spaces.

To ensure that Phase Two could commence without delay, Minister O'Callaghan secured an exemption from Stage 1 of the Infrastructure Guidelines. As one of six projects included in the Accelerated Capital Delivery Programme allowed to bypass this approval stage, the delivery timeline is expected to be shortened by 12 to 18 months. The total investment for the development stands at €28.08 million. Speaking during his visit to the facility, Minister O'Callaghan said: "Today marks an important milestone for the Irish Prison Service and reflects my commitment to increasing prison capacity and modernising the prison estate. I was very pleased to be in Castlerea Prison to turn the sod with Irish Prison Service Director General Caron McCaffrey and Governor Theresa Beirne. I want to thank them and their teams for their work and dedicated service.

"The Castlerea Grove Phase 2 development is a major project within the national prison estate expansion programme which will deliver an additional 126 spaces. I am pleased to confirm construction is now underway."

This development is a priority project under the Government's National Development Plan, which focuses on increasing capital investment to modernise the prison estate and tackle overcrowding in line with population trends. Furthermore, a separate contract for 66 additional cell spaces within the main prison at Castlerea will bring the total increase across the site to 216 spaces.

Minister O'Callaghan added: "I secured a record capital investment of €67.9million for the Irish Prison Service in 2026, as part of a total investment of €528million from 2026 to 2030. €495million will be invested in building projects that will deliver over 1,500 prison spaces by 2031.

"This is the largest ever building programme and will include the Castlerea development, a large extension to the existing Cork Prison on the site of the old, decommissioned Cork Prison, a new block in Wheatfield, an additional block extension at Midlands prison, additional spaces in Mountjoy and the Dóchas Centre. It will also fund planning and commencement of construction of a new prison at Thornton in North County Dublin."