Mr. Vivian Geiran:

Currently, we have a probation officer assigned to work in that court. The approach works very well for certain offenders. When I speak to people, particularly from other jurisdictions, about Drug Treatment Court models, I am conscious that in Ireland we have a District Court system that operates very much in that way. Clearly, the Drug Treatment Court is a more focused version but District Court Judiciary and the District Court generally want to give people who have addiction issues a chance to address them, and we work with many of those people on behalf of the courts. If there is anyway we can extend and make that approach more available, that would be welcome from my point of view.

The Deputy's question about the work of other agencies and Departments is very important. I referred in my opening statement to the need for a whole-of-Government approach. One of the recommendations in the report of the strategic review of penal policy pointed to the need for a whole-of-Government approach as well as the implementation oversight group, to which I referred, to which we and the other organisations have to report. An interdepartmental group was also established at the initiation of the Department of Justice and Equality at the most senior level, which invited all of the Departments and significant agencies to be represented. That group is chaired by Dr. Ruth Barrington; it has been convened since last year, and I believe it is making very good progress in that regard. It is clearly a very important area that we need to continue to work with.