Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

One of the ways in which we can support people is by supporting some of the organisations that are specifically there to work with people. I met with some of them in the Dóchas Centre only last week. Through separate funding in my Department, I have tried to invest in many of those organisations so that they can expand where possible and also offer as much of a service to as many people as possible. Obviously, work needs to be continued where the Prison Service works with community organisations, and local authorities, the social welfare office and others, to make sure that it is not an immediate "No" for people, when they are seeking housing, work or employment. My Department funds various organisations whose sole focus is working with people to access the workplace, and to identify industries and sectors that will work with people who have come out of prison, and their families, to provide that wraparound support for them. There are some very good programmes. I cannot think of the names of them off the top of my head, but there are a number of very positive programmes where the sole focus is to support the rehabilitation of people when they are back in the community, together with their families. These programmes are also about reaching out into the wider community to normalise a situation where someone has turned his or her life around, has served his or her time and wants to integrate back into the community. My Department is doing that and there has been increased funding for those programmes over the years.