Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have said it before but am happy to repeat again that I very much appreciate the work done by the committee in this area. The report produced was excellent. It followed along the route of the reforms that we want to implement. Some of the issues I referenced earlier were also referenced in the committee's report and are ones which the committee was very anxious we address. I appreciate the support of the committee for the community return programme that is in place. I also appreciate the committee's support for the increased use of community service orders, which is very important. The committee's report fed into work that is going on in my Department currently. A departmental committee, with some outside representatives on it, is looking at the areas of punishment and re-offending and I expect it to report to me by Easter. The original intention was that the committee would report by Christmas but there were some additional issues that the committee wanted to consider and I felt it was better that it had additional time and comprehensively covered every issue it wished to cover, rather than cutting the process short. This committee's very excellent report fed into that process but that is not delaying what I describe as the reform process because as is clear from the outline I gave in my opening comments, there is a revolution going on with regard to the manner in which we are approaching and dealing with prison issues, offenders and recidivism. There has been enormous change effected, not just in the context of the structure of our prisons, but also the manner in which prison officers are deployed; the extent to which we are trying to increase the number of organisations involved, on a communal basis, with former prisoners; the integrated plan which we now have between the prison and probation services, which did not exist previously; the engagement of the probation service with prisoners at an earlier stage, pending release; and the incentivised programme that I mentioned and that is improving behaviour within our prisons. Under the latter programme, if prisoners behave well and participate in various programmes, they see an immediate benefit in terms of what is available to them within the prison service. All of this is part of an overall major reform plan to completely change the manner in which we approach things.

There are three issues that are of enormous importance to the public. The first is that those who have committed serious crimes pay the penalty and fully serve their sentences. The second is that the wider community feels that the penalties that can be imposed will have some deterrent impact. The third is that once people have been punished, be that through the use of community service orders, incarceration or been given assistance, such as in tackling alcohol and drug addiction, that there is not a repeat of offences previously committed. We have to reduce our level of recidivism in the interests of the broader community. I very much appreciate the high level of support from this committee and across both Houses of the Oireachtas, from all sides, for this very constructive approach. The committee's report was of great value and I will be very happy when we have the final work-out of what we will add to the new strategy, hopefully at the end of April, to make it available to the committee. I look forward to hearing the committee's views on it. Members will see that the work they did on their report has contributed very positively to it. It will set an additional road-map for where we travel in the years to come.