I thank Deputy Kenny for raising this important matter. The Irish Prison Service is committed to providing a safe and secure environment for both staff and people in prison. This includes ensuring sufficient staffing and managing attendance issues. The Prison Service has been recruiting prison officers in the past number of years and has also put in place a range of supports for staff. Good progress has been made with 133 prison officers recruited in 2021 and 128 in 2022. I am pleased to note that 16 recruit prison officers graduated at the end of January 2023.
In addition, a class of eight recruits who commenced training in December 2022 are due to graduate in March and a further class of seven who commenced training at the end of January will graduate in April. It is expected that 250 prison officers will be recruited this year, supported by additional funding of €6.5 million secured for staffing under budget 2023.
I can advise the Deputy that the attendance management review, to which he referred, is an internal audit document developed at the request of the Irish Prison Service to assist the organisation in considering and developing best practices and procedures around attendance management, which is a critical operational dependency. It is not the practice to publish such reports. However, to be of assistance to the Deputy, I have had inquiries made and am advised by the Irish Prison Service that a number of the recommendations made have been progressed, including a key recommendation focused on upgrading the time and attendance clocking and recording system.
Progress on many of the recommendations in the report is underpinned by the implementation of this new system. I have been advised that the Prison Service expects to publish the relevant tender in the coming weeks. Overall, the report provided a positive assurance that there is an effective system of internal controls in place in the Prison Service over attendance management. The service has advised that it is informing relevant policies and strategies.