Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 15 Jun 1999

Vol. 506 No. 2

Written Answers. - Juvenile Liaison Officers.

Róisín Shortall

Ceist:

89 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the areas, if any, where his Department is experiencing staff retention or recruitment problems in relation to its services for children, particularly in relation to juvenile liaison officers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15393/99]

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Mr. O'Donoghue)

The main responsibility for providing services for children rests with my colleague, the Minister for Health and Children. That said, a number of areas of my Department, or of agencies under its aegis, are involved with children, the principal examples being the juvenile liaison service of the Garda Síochána and the Probation and Welfare Service.

The Garda authorities have informed me that they have no problems in recruiting and retaining staff who work with children and young people. In relation to the community based Garda youth diversion projects which are aimed at diverting juveniles from crime, the civilian staff, i.e., the project co-ordinators, are recruited for each pro ject following competitive interview. I am not aware of any difficulties in relation to the recruitment or retention of civilian staff where these projects are concerned. Selection of suitable personnel from the force to fill vacancies for juvenile liaison officers is achieved by choosing from a panel of applicants.

Probation and welfare officers in the Probation and Welfare Service may be assigned to duties connected with the courts, places of detention and special schools run by the Department of Education and Science and provide a service to children in the course of these duties.

At present there are a number of vacancies in the Probation and Welfare Service which have arisen as a result of retirements, resignations, career break and job-sharing applications. Arrangements for the filling of these vacancies are ongoing. The Civil Service Commission has been asked to assign to the service probation and welfare officers who were placed on a panel last year following a competitive interview.

Finally, I can confirm that, notwithstanding the difficulties experienced by my Department and others in relation to the recruitment of new staff generally, my Department and the Department of Finance are in the process of finalising a package which, hopefully, will target a larger number of applicants for a new competition for probation and welfare officers which will be advertised by the Civil Service Commission in the very near future. In addition to the filling of vacancies, this recruitment campaign is also geared towards the filling of 39 additional posts recently sanctioned for the Probation and Welfare Service to deal with increased workload.