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Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 15 Oct 2003

Vol. 572 No. 4

Written Answers. - Homeless Persons.

Jack Wall

Question:

90 Mr. Wall asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the reports made by the probation and welfare service and the Irish Prison Service in relation to the actions required under the homeless preventative strategy, in particular to the operations of the specialist unit, to assist offenders who are homeless on release from custody; the numbers of transitional housing units built, the numbers of additional probation and welfare staff appointed, and the programme put in place with the vocational education committees to ensure the continuance by prisoners of education programmes on release; the monitoring systems put in place by his Department to ensure that the measures in this strategy are implemented and contribute to preventing crime; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23356/03]

Arthur Morgan

Question:

106 Mr. Morgan asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the reports made by the probation and welfare service and the Irish Prison Service in relation to the actions required under the homeless preventative strategy, in particular in relation to the operations of the specialist unit to assist offenders who are homeless on release from custody, to the numbers of transitional housing units built, the numbers of additional probation and welfare staff appointed, and the programme put in place with the vocational education committees to ensure the continuance by prisoners of education programmes on release; the monitoring systems put in place by his Department to ensure that the measures in this strategy are implemented and contribute to preventing the re-incidence of crime; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23205/03]

Bernard Allen

Question:

191 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the reports made by the probation and welfare service and the Irish Prison Service in relation to the actions required under the homeless preventative strategy, in particular in relation to the operations of the specialist unit to assist offenders who are homeless on release from custody; the numbers of transitional housing units built; the number of additional probation and welfare staff appointed; the programme put in place with the vocational education committees to ensure the continuance by prisoners of education programmes on release; the monitoring systems put in place by his Department to ensure that the measures in this strategy are implemented and contribute to preventing crime; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23491/03]

I propose to take Questions Nos. 90, 106 and 191 together.

I can assure the Deputies of my Department's continued commitment to tacking homelessness among persons released from custody as part of the Government's integrated approach on homelessness. The theme of the homeless preventative strategy published in February 2002 to which the Deputies refer is the progressing of a range of measures focused on a number of identified risk groups, including prisoners, and which are to be advanced under the auspices of a cross-departmental team on homelessness.

In line with the strategy, the homeless offenders strategy team, HOST, a multi-agency accommodation directorate, has been established, with the probation and welfare service as the lead agency and an assistant principal probation and welfare officer as director of the team. Appropriate levels of clerical and administrative support staff have also been provided to HOST to enable the team to carry out its functions.

The team has a national remit in relation to both offenders under probation and welfare service supervision in the community as well as those in and leaving custody, and provides a focus for identifying and redressing pathways into homelessness associated with offending and imprisonment. Dublin City Council has seconded a senior staff member to work on a full-time basis with the team. Appropriate liaison arrangements have been established by this team with the Irish Prison Service.
The team also works in close partnership with a range of community and voluntary bodies already providing valuable services to homeless offenders and those at risk of homelessness. HOST has developed a strategic action plan which is intended to facilitate the implementation of a co-ordinated accommodation strategy in the context of established policies on homelessness and within current resource limitations.
In relation to the transitional housing units issue, while it has not so far been possible for the Irish Prison Service to progress the building of the proposed transitional housing units from its own capital resources, discussions are ongoing with the probation and welfare service, the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and a number of local authorities with a view to resourcing the development of a number of transitional accommodation facilities to cater for the needs of ex-offenders.
The recently published Irish Prison Service annual report for 2002 contains information, on a prison by prison basis, on a variety of pre-and post-release initiatives now in place in the prison education units. Ten vocational education committees make the largest contribution to, and are the mainstay of, the prison education service. This facilitates linkages between the prison education units and the local vocational education committees in relation to those prisoners seeking to continue education after release from prison. Funding is also being provided by the relevant vocational education committees to post-release support initiatives catering for offenders, such as Pathways and the Bridge project, both in Dublin and Dillon's Cross in Cork.
As regards the Deputies' queries concerning monitoring, the cross-department team on homelessness, which reports to the Cabinet Committee on Social Inclusion, is responsible for monitoring and overseeing the implementation of the homeless preventative strategy. Both the Irish Prison Service and the probation and welfare service have representatives on the cross-departmental team which regularly provides progress reports to the Cabinet committee on the relevant actions required under the strategy.
Finally, the policy planning and research unit of my Department has allocated funding for research into aspects of homelessness among offenders which has been commissioned by the probation and welfare service. It is expected that this research report will be completed before the end of the year.
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