Mr. Gerry McNally:

I thank the Chairman and committee members. I want to begin by introducing myself and my colleagues. On my right, Ms Suzanne Vella is director of operations in the Probation Service, and on my left, Mr. Mark Wilson is the regional manager for Dublin north. I am the assistant director with responsibility for research and special projects.

The Probation Service is an agency within the Department of Justice and Equality operating nationally, with almost 400 staff. We are the lead agency in the assessment and management of offenders in the community and we also work in prisons to address offending and the reintegration of prisoners on release. At any one time, the Probation Service is supervising approximately 9,000 offenders - juveniles and adults - in the community, including offenders who are on supervision post-custody. A core element of how the Probation Service works is its partnership and joint working with the other criminal justice agencies such as the Courts Service, the Irish Prison Service and the Garda Síochána, as well as all the other statutory and voluntary community organisations such as the drugs task forces across the country. The Department of Justice and Equality - through the Probation Service - and the Irish Youth Justice Service provide funding to 60 community-based organisations to support their work with offenders. In the main, this is to support the reintegration of offenders into their communities by providing specialised treatment, skills and support.

The Probation Service has experience in working effectively with high-risk offenders including gang members and those involved in organised crime. We use evidence-based interventions with an emphasis on addressing pro-criminal attitudes and behaviours, resolving addiction and related factors and promoting changed behaviours and lifestyles. For most offenders this involves a radical change in their lives and there can be many risks of relapse.

Bringing about lasting change requires the input of a wide range of services. Inter-agency co-operation with our justice partners, particularly the courts, the Garda Síochána, the Irish Youth Justice Service and the Irish Prison Service, is critically important in this work, as is collaboration with the statutory and voluntary bodies. It is a question of joined-up services. I would like to take the opportunity to highlight several initiatives in which the Probation Service has participated, targeting higher-risk offenders who have been involved in serious offending including gang-related and organised crime. The Probation Service in co-operation with the Prison Service has been a partner in an EU-funded project, JCN, which is examining and developing best practice across Europe in the transition management and supervision of high-risk offenders leaving custody. It is about preparation and supervision of offenders post-custody to reduce any risk of further offending. We have also participated with the Garda Síochána in a two-year EU-funded project, SOMEC, which focuses on safeguarding citizens against serious and violent offenders travelling across Europe. It is about the transnational movement of crime. Sex offender risk assessment and management, SORAM, is a multi-agency model established by the Garda Síochána, the HSE, the Irish Prison Service and the Probation Service. It involves co-location of staff and has provided important learning and experience which we can use in the supervision and management of high-risk and gang-involved offenders. Opt In is a new joint agency response to crime developed by the Probation Service, the Garda Síochána and the Irish Prison Service, which will target persistent and prolific adult offenders. Again, this concerns people who will be involved in crime both in the communities and in gangs. It is similar to the integrated offender management model in the UK. As part of the increasing co-operation and co-ordination in these initiatives, Irish Prison Service personnel are now located in the Probation Service and a Probation Service manager is also part of a multi-agency team at Garda headquarters.

In terms of this committee’s deliberations, the Probation Service proposes the development of a co-ordinated overall strategy to support joined-up interventions across the social, criminal justice, education and economic realms to tackle gang and organised crime on individual, community and gang levels. We propose enhanced information and data sharing and joint working across the criminal justice bodies as well as other statutory and community-based services. We propose the increased use of probation supervision as a sanction including post-custody supervision with enhanced joint working and collaboration. We propose prioritising the allocation of resources for intensive interventions with offenders involved, or at risk of involvement, in gang and organised crime. We also propose that there should be particular research on the factors and causes which contribute to organised crime, in order to identify the risk factors and those at most risk and to inform effective interventions. We propose investigation and evaluation of initiatives both here and in other jurisdictions to identify lessons that can be learned and approaches and actions that can be implemented to improve the outcomes and results. We also support and propose continued participation in European and international projects to develop and share best practice in working with offenders in general, and in particular with those at high risk of reoffending and becoming involved in the kind of crime we are discussing this morning.

I thank the committee for the invitation to come here today. The Probation Service will fully co-operate with and provide any necessary information required by the committee in its work.