Irish prisoners pocket €2.7 million of tax payer's cash in 'pocket money'

Irish prisoners pocketed €2.7million of taxpayers’ cash in “pocket money” last year.

According to new figures obtained by Dublin Live inmates right across the system received €2,793,250.

Prisoners at the Midlands Prison in Portlaoise, where Graham Dwyer and serial killer Mark Nash are banged up, accounted for the biggest share of gratuities at €595,594.

They were followed by lags at Dublin’s Mountjoy, including members of the ruthless Kinahan cartel, who received €473,433.

Inmates at Dublin’s Wheatfield Prison – where wife killer Joe O’Reilly is doing time – accounted for the third highest pay out at €359,127, followed by Cloverhill Prison with €231,119 and Castlerea with €216,241.

The lowest amount paid out was to Shelton Abbey Open Centre in Wicklow at €86,650.

And the Dochas Centre in Dublin, where female inmates including Scissor Sister Charlotte Mulhall are housed, was only marginally higher with €91,937.

Inmates across the prison system are given pocket money each day and their gratuity falls into three categories.

The standard daily rate is €1.70 but this rises to €2.20 for well-behaved prisoners and is cut to 95c for bad behaviour.

An additional daily allowance can be made by a prisoner who carries out work around the prison including in the kitchens, laundry and industrial waste management.

Inmates who carry out these tasks make 50% per session with a maximum of €3.50 a week.

The money can either be saved or used to buy products from the jail tuck shop.

Inmates at Arbour Hill Prison in Dublin received €115,126, Cork Prison €184,006, Limerick Prison with €158,736, Loughan House Place of Detection at €99,596 and high security Portlaoise Prison with €181,680.

The Irish Prison Service (IPS) said the pocket money is to reinforce good behaviour among inmates as well as working as an incentive to prisoners to work.

A spokesman added: “The policy provides for a differentiation of privileges between prisoners according to their level of engagement with services and quality of behaviour.

“Prisoners may avail of further gratuities under the Approved Working Gratuity Scheme.”