Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

To follow up on the point made by Deputy Costello in regard to mental health, I am the spokesperson for my party on mental health but I also worked in addiction services throughout Dublin. Much of the time people have dual diagnoses and are not getting the adequate care they need prior to going to prison. I appreciate that is not the Minister's responsibility. However, when people end up in prison, there is a responsibility to meet their healthcare needs.

The answer I received to my most recent parliamentary question on this indicated 1,804 people were waiting to access psychology services. Some of them are waiting more than two years for an appointment with those services. There are also 894 people waiting to access addiction services while in prison. Sometimes, it is hard for people in the general population to engage with services when they are living chaotic lifestyles, but there is a chance when somebody is in prison where there is - excuse the pun - a captive audience. More needs to be done to make these services more available, whether they are mental health or psychology. As I said, they often overlap with dual diagnosis.

There is mention, and it may be connected, of a 7.86% reduction in the allocation for prisoner care and rehabilitation. Will that have any impact on people accessing psychology and addiction services? Can anything else be done so that people get the care they need, when and where they need it, when they are in the prison population?