Mr. Doncha O'Sullivan:

The Department has a governance agreement in place for three years with the Probation Service. We also have an annual performance delivery agreement. Under those arrangements, we meet the head of the Probation Service at least twice a year and back that up with a constant stream of regular informal engagement and support. In fact, the Minister met the Probation Service and senior team on-site in the past week or so and had a very good engagement. We obviously set targets and the resource allocations, and work closely with the Probation Service to consider where it is going strategically in the coming years.

There are also service level agreements for the provision of ICT and financial services. The Probation Service relies on the Department for a lot of those central support services.