Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have just a couple of comments. Then I will let Deputy Ó Ríordáin in.

On the point Deputy Kenny quite rightly made about support services, I am looking at these subheads. The budget for buildings and equipment is reduced by 5%, but prisoner services are marked here in the subhead I am looking at as having a budgetary reduction of 6.68%. Key to understanding why that is the case is to ask how many inmates there were in 2022 versus the number in 2023. That might give us some indication as to the reduction in demand for services, or is there another matter arising on which it would be worth the committee having further information?

The Revised Estimates refer to the recruitment of prison officers. You yourself touched on that, Minister. For the purposes of discussion and our consideration, could you inform the committee of the number of prison officers recruited?