Cost of jailing a prisoner increases to €1,842 per week

The average cost of jailing the State’s most dangerous criminals, including Brian Rattigan and the Dundon brothers, jumped even further last year.

New figures released by the Irish Prison Service (IPS) confirm it costs the tax-payer €1,842 per week to jail each prisoner, including the Republican prisoner group, at Portlaoise prison. This is up from the €1,818 per week per prisoner cost in 2013.

Figures released by the IPS show that the cost per prisoner space at Portlaoise last year increased from €94,575 to €95,818. The total running costs for the prison amounted to over €27.8m.