Ms Claire O'Connell:

The Maynooth University partnership emerged from a college connect research project in 2019. People started to realise that different activities were going on between Maynooth University and Mountjoy Prison but they were not done in a co-ordinated manner. People were not necessarily aware that a particular lecturer was engaging with a student and working on a certain programme. A steering committee, which was established in October 2019, includes representatives from the CDETB, teaching staff, lecturers, and administrative staff from the access office in Maynooth University, who have done sterling work in getting everything up and running. While increasing the participation of students with criminal convictions in prison is one of the primary aims of the partnership, it is not the only aim. We also hope to create a learning environment in Mountjoy campus. Part of our plan includes inviting guest lectures to give lectures on all sorts of topics, from environmental science to climate change, to students in the progression unit and, hopefully, the prison. That had started off and was very successful until everything ground to a halt with Covid restrictions.