Mr. Michael Donnellan:

The number of assaults on prison officers is always a worry for us. In 2015, we had 91 assaults, down slightly on the previous year. We have not got the figures for 2016 yet. We will have them by the end of February and I can send them to the committee when we have completed the reconciliation of them.

We can go through really bad patches with prison assaults. In 2015, we went through a really bad patch with a number of assaults which came together. It was down from 151 the previous year. In 2013, it was 147, and in 2012, it was 107. Assaults are a feature which we try to militate against. Violence in prisons the world over is becoming more of a feature, usually due to the unpredictability of drug issues and mental health issues. People are often not violent for the sake of being violent but because they have underlying issues.