Irish Penal Reform Trust

Lobbying Organisation Irish Penal Reform Trust

Date published 21 Jan, 2025

Relevant Matter Public policy or programme

Public Policy Area Justice and Equality

Period 1 Sep, 2024 to 31 Dec, 2024

Specific Details IPRT Priorities for General Election

Intended results Seeking IPRT’s election priorities to be reflected in party manifestos and prioritised in election campaigning. The asks, focused on criminal justice and penal policy, aim to shift the dial away from reactive measures and instead focus on proactive, clear, evidence-informed solutions to offending.

Name of person primarily responsible for lobbying on this activity Saoirse Brady

Did any Designated Public Official(DPO) or former Designated Public Official(DPO) carry out lobbying activities on your behalf in relation to this return? You must include yourself, and answer Yes, if you are a current DPO or a DPO at any time in the past. (What is a Designated Public Official?) No

Did you manage or direct a grassroots campaign? No

Was this lobbying done on behalf of a client? No

Mass communications

Email All Oireachtas Members Six mass emails were sent in total to all Oireachtas members over the course of the General Election campaign advocating for candidates to support IPRT 10 publicly available priority asks including the need to enshrine prison as a last resort, enhance proportionality and transparency in sentencing, implement coherent, data-driven and evidence-informed penal policy, ratify OPCAT and develop a whole-of-government strategy to support and promote rehabilitation and reintegration.

Lobbying activity

The following activities occurred for this specific Subject Matter Area.

Email (11-20)

Personalised emails were sent to all Ministers on 1 November in addition to the mass email communications.

Meeting (1)

Executive Director met with Senator Barry Ward and Majella Fitzpatrick, Special Advisor to the Taoiseach to discuss IPRT's key asks on 23 September 2024.

Email (1)

Follow-up email was sent on 30 September to Senator Barry Ward asking him to share the information with Majella Fitzpatrick, Special Advisor to the Taoiseach on key IPRT asks to be included in the Fine Gael manifesto.

Event / Reception (1)

IPRT hosted an election hustings on 20 November in the Oak Room of the Mansion House with Patrick Costello (Green Party), Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Sinn Féin), Sineád Gibney (Social Democrats but not yet elected for purposes of DPO), Aodhán Ó Riordáin (Labour) and Jim O'Callaghan (Fianna Fáil). IPRT called on all representatives to support IPRT election asks and to set out their party's position on key areas of penal reform.

Designated public officials lobbied

The following DPOs were lobbied during this return period on this specific Subject Matter Area. These DPOs were involved in at least one of the Lobbying Activities listed above, but not necessarily all of them. As returns are specific to a Subject Matter Area the above Lobbying Activities may be associated with multiple returns.

Helen McEntee Minister (Department of Justice)

James Browne Minister of State (Department of Justice)

Simon Harris An Taoiseach (Department of the Taoiseach)

Micheál Martin Tánaiste and Minister (Department of Foreign Affairs)

Roderic O'Gorman Minister (Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth)

Jack Chambers Minister (Department of Finance)

Paschal Donohoe Minister (Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform)

Eamon Ryan Minister (Department of Environment, Climate and Communications)

Norma Foley Minister (Department of Education)

Catherine Martin Minister (Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media)

Darragh O'Brien Minister (Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage)

Heather Humphreys Minister (Department of Social Protection)

Charlie McConalogue Minister (Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine)

Stephen Donnelly Minister (Department of Health)

Peter Burke Minister (Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment)

Patrick O'Donovan Minister (Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science)

Barry Ward Senator (Seanad)

Majella Fitzpatrick Special Adviser (Department of the Taoiseach)

Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)

Jim O'Callaghan TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin MEP (European Parliament)