Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It links in with Deputy O'Callaghan's point that many of the groups we have had before the committee aspire to the same thing but logistically, because the Prison Service does not have enough staff, many opportunities for meaningful activity in prisons could be removed because people are not able to go here or there or have link-in options. In addressing a recruitment deficit, getting the numbers right and training people will be key to actual changes on the ground. Is the Prison Officers Association confident the numbers being spoken about with regard to recruitment will be sufficient to fill the gap?

I could be completely wrong, but it strikes me when we talk about innovation on the ground that perhaps some of the measures that were progressive have not been able to be delivered. I am thinking of the Dóchas Centre, which was ahead of its time, but because of a lack of staff or resources, particularly training and education, the meaningful training the women do is not great. I am sure this has a knock-on effect on the staff. Do the witnesses notice this contradiction?

A theme has been the number of people in prison with acute psychotic and mental health problems, and it is the members of the Prison Officers Association who must deal with them. How many people are out sick as a result of being at the receiving end of a violent incident in prison? Do the witnesses believe existing supports are sufficient to address this? It strikes me as beyond belief that people in our prison system were refused by the Central Mental Hospital on the basis they were too high risk. The Central Mental Hospital is the professional body dealing with psychotic people, and when it states a person is too high risk for it to deal with, the person is left in a prison setting. That is appalling for that person and the members of the Prison Officers Association, and it is just not on. Can anything be done about this? There needs to be much more of a clamour about this because it is crazy that a waiting list of more than 20 is tolerated.

We raised the issue of the training unit with the director general and I do not know how best to put what we were told. We had many concerns, which probably were not fully answered at the committee meeting we attended, and the question on the gap in service provision was not answered. Do the witnesses have a suggestion on how it might be managed? We are very concerned about this. The training unit was pioneering in its day and perhaps it has diminished a bit. Is there something we should recommend? We were struck by the gap but we did not receive full answers on it.