Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I reiterate what Deputy Ó Ríordáin has said. I met with Caron McCaffrey, the head of the Irish Prison Service, on this issue, along with her colleague Fergal Black. One of the issues that struck me was that the point of prison has to be to ensure we build a better society and people do not go back into the cycle of reoffending, going in and out of prison. That seems to be a pattern of a large segment of the people who are continually in the prison system. The issue in regard to community-type activity or community sentencing of some kind which does not involve a custodial sentence for minor crime is something that should be considered more. We need to make a combined effort to work on that and see how it can be resolved. We also have to think of the victims of crime. There are many people who are seriously hurt and injured and feel violated by things that have happened to them. They also want to ensure there is a system that protects society from these people continually reoffending. It is a challenge and I accept that.

The Prison Service is recruiting at the moment and it is not having the difficulties An Garda Síochána is having, thankfully. However, there are aspects of the service that are having difficulties, particularly in respect of the psychiatric services that often have to be provided for many people in prison. A large segment of the people who end up in prison commit crimes when they are in a psychotic state. They may have mental health issues or it may be because of addiction. These problems need to be dealt with while they are in prison. The evidence presented was that it is difficult to retain people in those services. It is difficult work. One of the changes that occurred in the hard years we had after the crash in the economy was that, whereas it used to be the case that anyone who worked in the Prison Service for 30 years got a pension entitlement and prison officers and most of the other staff retain that, and whereas that used to be the case for the likes of psychiatric nurses recruited to the prison service, they now have to work 40 years as if they were in the HSE or any other service. If that was brought back to the way it used to be, it would have a cost in regard to pensions but not directly in regard to salaries. I am told it would certainly assist in being able to recruit and retain people with the expertise they require. It is a real difficulty and I ask the Minister to consider how it could be looked at. It would make a big difference. Good work has been done, especially in working out systems for pre-release programmes and so on to get people ready to go back into society.

Post-release programmes need a whole change as to how they happen and work. In numerous cases people who have gone through programmes in prison, done quite well and, often, been able at least to change their behaviour to the extent that they are not triggered by the same things - they may have mental health issues or whatever - go back out into society and it is simply a matter of "open the gates and away they go". They often do not have a service or an after-service. We see that particularly in addiction services. There needs to be a real effort to ensure that that change can happen. The Probation Service has a big part to play in that, but the primary part has to be the preparation for the person to go back into the community. To get that right in prison is one of the key tasks required, but that will require staffing around the particular expertises I mentioned, particularly in psychiatric services, addiction services, etc.