Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 3 March 2005
172 Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the rehabilitation programmes for prisoners provided over the past ten years; the purpose of each; the prisons in which each programme has been offered; the total cost of each per year and to date in 2005; if, in each case, the programme has been discontinued; and if so, the reason therefor. [7438/05]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Irish Prison Service employs a number of means to encourage prisoners to bring about positive development within themselves, including: programmes in the areas of education, vocational and pre-vocational training and lifeskills, specific programmes and individual counselling to address criminogenic factors, for example, anger management and sex offenders programmes, individual and group counselling and support, drug treatment, and facilitating the involvement of voluntary organisations in providing appropriate prisoner support services. These programmes are delivered by a wide range of specialist services that operate in the prisons, such as the services of psychologists, teachers, probation and welfare officers and prison officers.
I note that the Deputy is seeking details of the various prison rehabilitation programmes provided over the past ten years. Each prison and place of detention has in place a range of prisoner rehabilitation programmes catering for its particular prison population. Across all of the prisons, the array and content of such prisoner rehabilitation programmes continue to evolve with additional elements added or replaced to take account of changing needs. I refer the Deputy to the annual reports of the Irish Prison Service which give an overview of developments in relation to the prisons and, in particular, those reports for most recent years contain prison by prison profiles of prisoner activities. It would be too substantial a task to assemble in detail all the information sought by the Deputy under the headings he has mentioned and compiling it would require a disproportionate and inordinate amount of staff time and effort and could not be justified in current circumstances where there are other significant demands on resources.
As regards the annual costs of such programmes, it is not currently possible to disaggregate from the total Irish Prison Service spending all of the elements that specifically relate to rehabilitation programmes for prisoners. However, I advise the Deputy that I obtained a budget for the Irish Prison Service of €369 million for 2005, which compares to a budget of €180 million provided for prisons in 1997.
