Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

As I said earlier in respect of the Probation Service, the number of probation officers in prisons over quite a few years either has been declining or has been static while prison populations increase. The number of prisoners per probation officer is increasing, so one probation officer now has a much greater remit. Their challenge is that a lot of the work that would previously have been done, such as pre-release preparation, the rehabilitative work in prison and that kind of work, is not getting done as much. I do not know whether this is a prisons issue or a Probation Service issue but there is certainly a need to address it. Is the Minister satisfied there is enough money in the Revised Estimates to address the need for probation officers within the prison environment?