Ms Caron McCaffrey:

Obviously, on committal, all of our prisoners are interviewed by both a nurse and a doctor, and we seek to engage with them around any addictions they may have be it in relation to illicit or prescription drugs or any alcohol addictions.

A range of services are in place to provide drug treatment programmes to prisoners within our care. The Deputy mentioned the addiction counselling service that we have got in place. That is run by Merchant's Quay Ireland.

The service is very successful and there is a significant uptake in respect of it. In addition, we have a nine-week drug treatment programme which operates in Mountjoy Prison. The programme forms part of a broader unit within the prison that has 50 beds available to assist people with drug treatment.