asked the Minister for Justice whether training courses to permit prison officers to undergo tuition in penology and criminology will be provided at university level in Dublin in the near future.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Training Courses for Prison Officers.
32.
It has been the practice in recent years to send selected prison personnel to training courses in Britain and it is intended to pursue that practice in the future. Additionally, a programme of training at home for recruit officers is being revived and intensified. It is not practicable at this time to provide courses at university level.
The Minister will have seen the statement of the secretary of the Prison Officers Association complaining about the present situation and will he take steps at least to have some emergency courses to ensure that officers are kept up to date with developments?
As I said in my reply, courses are being revived and intensified. It is impractical to talk about university training when 95 per cent of the people concerned have not got the educational standard to go to the university.
Surely a course could be provided at university level? The Minister is not saying that these people are incapable of learning courses?
In my view, it is far more satisfactory to provide the type of courses we are providing for them outside rather than the type of course that might be provided in the university.