Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 21 March 2013
Public Accounts Committee
2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of the Chief State Solicitor
Vote 19 - Justice and Equality
Chapter 15: Lease of Accommodation for a Probation Service Project
11:40 am
Mr. Brian Purcell:
It is not necessarily a cost issue, but there are issues. I do not really want to open up a debate on the policy, but there would be issues. There would be an element of draw factor here as well, which has to be taken into consideration. We are providing a basic level of care and we believe it is a humane level of care. It is not luxury and nobody ever said it was. We provide the basic rights. Children have access to all educational facilities that are required. Whether or not we want to provide a system where adults can go to third level courses or whatever, there are limits to what we can do within the budget that we have.