Ms Nóirín O'Sullivan:

I wish to clarify that in the transportation of people to prison, on the execution of a warrant, we would not use patrol cars necessarily. A lot of taxis or hackneys are used, depending on the part of the country. Yes, people would be conveyed to prison but there may be a variety of transportation used to do so.

In terms of specifically dealing with female offenders and more importantly, in the first instance, engaging with people to divert them from crime, we have a number of initiatives under way. In our own community relations section, we have a number of individual projects. In particular, we also have a number of initiatives with the Irish Prison Service and the probation and welfare service, in terms of trying to help people stay out of the criminal justice system and divert people away from crime. A lot of our juvenile diversion programmes, and some of the diversion programmes that we are working on, in our community relations section would look, particularly, at trying to divert people away from crime and try to give them alternatives.

We are very much listening to what the Deputy has said, in terms of women and young female offenders and trying to work together. We work with a number of NGOs on the various programmes that are in place in communities and make sure that gardaí are engaged with those at a very early stage in an attempt to divert people away from crime.