TVs set prisons back €1m

Taxpayer met €80k bill for Netflix and Sky Sports in 2020 but IPS insist cost is justified

OVER €1m has been spent on televisions in Irish prisons over the past three years, but according to the Irish Prison Service (IPS) the expense is justified as it ‘reduces’ cases of self-harm and suicide.

Figures provided to the Mail, via a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, reveal the enormous budget spent on supplying inmates with TV sets.

The IPS also confirmed it had spent over €8,915 to install the infrastructure for Netflix across ten prisons last year. Premium channels, such of Sky Sports, has also cost the taxpayer €69,032 for the first nine months last year.

Up to the end of last year, close to €303,000 was spent on TVs, supplies and repairs for prisoners in their rooms, staff areas and other locations such as visiting rooms.

In 2019, the cost was €305,575 and it was a staggering €406,596 the previous year, amounting to a grand total of €1,015,066.

A spokesperson for the IPS, told the Mail the provision of televisions serves as a crucial purpose for a prisoner’s mental well-being. ‘The incidents of self-harm and suicide in prisons has been dramatically reduced since the introduction of televisions in prisons well over 30 years ago,’ he said.

However, Fianna Fáil TD Willie O’Dea told the Mail that he can’t see the sense in spending so much on televisions and premium channels in Irish prisons.

‘I’m not against prisoners having TVs,’ he said, adding that the figure seems to be ‘an extraordinary amount of money to spend on them over the course of three years’.