Mr. Barry Owens:

The Irish Association for Social Inclusion Opportunities, IASIO, thanks the Chair and the members of the committee for this invite and welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the Joint Committee on Key Issues facing the Traveller Community. IASIO provides front-line services to members of the Traveller community in prisons and as part of the Probation Service in the community. It has been doing so since 2000, with IASIO becoming a separate criminal justice organisation in 2012. Our participation today is based on that operational experience. IASIO provides three main services, the linkage service which is funded by the Probation Service, the resettlement service funded by the IPS and the gate service which is also funded by the IPS. The linkage service is a community-based, employment related, guidance and placement service specifically designed for people in the criminal justice system. It assesses a person’s distance from the labour market and identifies any barriers to progression that may exist. Working with the person it identifies realistic goals around training, education and employment and supports the person in achieving those goals. The linkage service is delivered through training and employment officers, TEOs, of which there are currently 17, equating to 15.6 whole-time equivalent posts, attached to the probation teams around the country. Between 2016 and 2020 the linkage service received 8,498 referrals.

The gate service is the prison based equivalent of the linkage service, likewise assessing distance from the labour market, identifying barriers to progression and supporting people in accessing training and employment opportunities post their release in the community. The gate service is embedded in the prison multidisciplinary process and is an important part of the release process in participating prisons. There are currently eight TEOs, six whole-time equivalents, in the gate service. Between 2016 and 2020 the gate service received 4,122 referrals. Combined, between 2016 and 2020 the linkage and gate placements for those referrals were 5,027, with 971 in education, 2,056 in training and 2,000 in employment.

The resettlement service supports people in their immediate release. It helps them create realistic resettlement plans while in prison and provides access to essential supports around housing, welfare and medical cards as part of their release. The resettlement service is the main point of contact between the IPS and local authorities, the national medical card unit and the Department of Social Protection. Like the gate service it is embedded in the prison multidisciplinary review process. The resettlement service currently has 12 resettlement co-ordinators, 11 whole-time equivalents. Between 2016 and 2020 the resettlement service received 6,168 referrals of which there were 1,731 housing applications, 1,979 medical card applications and 1,539 welfare supports.

IASIO’s operational services are based on general provision. They are available to all people on probation if deemed suitable by the referring probation officer, as is the case for the linkage service, and open to all sentenced prisoners with some sentence length criteria, as is the case for the gate and resettlement services. As such IASIO’s services are available to members of the Traveller community in prison and as part of probation supervision in the community. Between 2016 and 2020 across IASIO’s three main operational services there were 1,502 referrals for Travellers, of which 1,287 were male and 215 female. In total 306 placements were made, 62 being in education, 195 in training and 49 in employment-related activities. There were 14 in paid employment.

With respect to work with the Traveller community specifically, we liaise with various Traveller organisations in the community on an ongoing basis. We are members of the Traveller in Prison Initiative, TPI. We ran a significant groupwork programme, the midlands Traveller talk group in the Midlands Prison between 2015 and 2018 in partnership with Laois Traveller action group and the IPS, which provided important lessons for Traveller participation and programme organisation in prisons. We have received training from Pavee Point in successfully introducing an ethnic identifier as part of our data collection process. We have a co-operation agreement, facilitated through TPI and the IPS, with Traveller peer support workers covering Limerick, Dóchas, Wheatfield and the Midlands Prisons, the aim of which is to improve engagement and outcomes for members of the Traveller community.

In preparing this submission IASIO colleagues were asked to note some of the issues they come across when working with members of the Traveller community. They reported that trust can be an issue and must be developed over time; with the development of trust, engagement can be very positive. Also noted was that some Travellers decline the service, that is after it is explained to them. With respect to working in prisons, even if engagement was good while in prison, there is often poor engagement post release. It is difficult to maintain contact with members of the Traveller community post release. Low literacy levels and low skill or educational attainment are common. Complex presenting issues can be evident, related to addiction and mental health issues. Travellers often seem reluctant to attend prison education because of reported bad experiences of mainstream education. Training and employment officers report that it is very difficult to organise employment placements. Labour market participation is very low. Not all Travellers express an interest in mainstream employment. The majority of placements for Travellers are on CE schemes, probation projects and community training programmes. While in prison Travellers are less likely to present as homeless.

IASIO continues to develop its services for people in prison and on probation and recognise as part of that development a need to better understand engagement with members of the Traveller community. We have committed to fully implementing the ethnic identifier and to reviewing as part of our current strategic commitments the cultural fit of our services with respect to Travellers. We also aim to co-deliver with Traveller peer support workers an IASIO groupwork programme called Changing Course, the hope here being that it facilitates Traveller participation. That concludes my opening statement and once again I thank the committee.