Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 April 2024
444. Deputy Patrick Costello asked the Minister for Justice to provide in tabular form a Statewide list of community probation teams, by area, the number of staff employed in each and the number of vacancies; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17689/24]
View answerI can advise the Deputy that Community Teams within the Probation Service are structured into 7 operational regions, 5 geographical regions and two national regions. Below we have included details of the operational regions and the counties which they cover.
Dublin North/North East: Dublin North including counties Meath and Louth
Dublin South/Wicklow: Dublin South including county Wicklow
South West: including counties Kerry, Cork, Limerick and Clare
Midlands/South East: including counties Offaly, Kildare, Laois, Tipperary, Kilkenny, Carlow, Wexford and Waterford
West, North West and Westmeath: including Mayo, Sligo, Donegal, Monaghan, Cavan, Westmeath, Longford, Leitrim, Roscommon and Galway;
Young Persons Probation (YPP): working with children and young people aged 12-18 years who are before the Courts or who are in children detention centres.
Community Service: teams with responsibility for the management and delivery of community service nationwide.
The Probation Service also has a dedicated operational region: Prisons Region (North & South) which is responsible for probation work in prisons.
Each region is comprised of teams that cover geographical areas within county boundaries in most instances.
The Probation Service has recently received additional budget to strengthen its staffing in community and prison settings. Some of the vacancies in the table provided arise due to an increased head count on foot of this additional funding.
I can assure the Deputy that recruitment has been ongoing to fill vacancies across the Probation Service and will continue throughout 2024.
As requested by the Deputy, the number of staff and current vacancies in the Community Teams Nationwide, as of 18 April 2024, are set out at the following link.
