Mr. Michael Donnellan:

There is no doubt that the emphasis that has been put on homelessness, particularly in Dublin and Cork, has a positive impact in prison. If people out in the streets are being accommodated properly, which is beginning to happen, that will have a positive impact in that they will not be committing petty crimes and be remanded or committed to prison for short periods. That is the positive side of the issue. Anything that can happen positively in the community will have an impact in the prisons. Notwithstanding that, we always have a range of people in prison who have come from homelessness and who have no place to go. A lot of the people who have come into prison and have come off drugs really do not want to go back out to what they would call an "ordinary" hostel. They want to go back out to a place that is drug-free and where they are given support. That is where we are putting our new emphasis and focus. We are trying to ensure that we do not release people into homelessness any more. At any given time in the Dóchas Centre, the women's prison, there would be three or four women who could be in the community but for the fact that they do not have accommodation. They do not have a safe place to go and all the evidence is that they would be back in prison within 24 hours. In that context, we would prefer to keep them safe and plan their release rather than simply releasing them.