A ‘BESPOKE’ SUITE for mothers and babies at Ireland’s largest female prison will have space for just one woman and child when it opens later this year.

The Journal has learned that there are no immediate plans to replace the dedicated mother and baby unit at the Dóchas Centre in Dublin, which was repurposed a number of years ago to tackle overcrowding.

Irish prison rules say that babies may live in prison with their incarcerated mothers until they are 12 months old to facilitate breastfeeding, and may be allowed to stay after that age under special circumstances.

Pregnant women who are in prison and about to give birth are taken to hospital to have their baby, before they are re-incarcerated. 

Figures from the Irish Prison Service show that six babies have been born to women incarcerated in the Dóchas Centre since 2024, with another two born to women in Limerick’s Women’s Prison during that time.

There were two births to women in the Dóchas in 2024, three births last year and one birth so far this year.

A Council of Europe report published last year recommended that the government should ensure that mothers and young children held in Irish prisons have a dedicated mother and baby unit separate from the main prison.

The Irish Prison Service responded to the recommendation at the time by saying that plans for additional capacity in the Dóchas Centre would include “the provision of dedicated mother and baby accommodation”.

Mothers and babies at the prison are currently accommodated in single-occupancy double rooms on a wing that is shared with enhanced-status prisoners (i.e. those who have demonstrated good behaviour).

Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan also addressed concerns about the State’s ability to accommodate pregnant women and newborn babies last year by telling the Oireachtas that work was commencing on “bespoke rooms for mothers and babies”.

But a spokesperson for the Department of Justice said this week that work is commencing on an “additional, bespoke suite for mothers and babies at the Dóchas Centre”.

When asked how many rooms this bespoke suite would contain, a spokesperson said capacity would be for “one mother and baby”.

Work on the suite is expected to be finished by the end of this year.

The revelation comes a week after O’Callaghan unveiled plans to increase the capacity at the Dóchas Centre by 52 spaces, or 30%.

The so-called Rowan House development will see the construction of a two-storey extension to the existing prison block and allow for 224 women to be held at the prison.

The extension will provide for 26 individual bedrooms, which includes 13 rooms on both the ground and first floor. All rooms are designed for double occupancy.

The Department of Justice confirmed to The Journal that a mother and baby unit would “not form part of the Rowan House development”.

Niamh McCormack, legal and public affairs manager with the Irish Penal Reform Trust, said the lack of dedicated accommodation at the Dóchas Centre has resulted in some mothers and babies being placed on protection.

“There are serious risks involved in babies being in prison,” she said, noting that some babies were spending significant periods confined to their cells, with reduced access to fresh air and sunlight.

She also said that detention should be a last resort for pregnant women and mothers of young children and warned that the expansion of prison capacity needed to coincide with greater use of non-custodial measures.

“You can’t build your way out of a prison overcrowding crisis,” McCormack added.