Mr. Fergal Black:

I am the person responsible for services at prison level. Maintaining all the services is a difficulty because, as the director general pointed out, there is a draw on staff to carry out necessary court escorts and so on. We have also had to assign staff temporarily to Covid duties over recent years. I am reassured by the Minister, as recently as yesterday, having made clear that in order to address this systemic problem, she wishes to seek to secure, through the Estimates process this year, additional resources for the Prison Service. From my perspective, that should ensure we will be able to provide psychology, education and work training services on a more optimal basis because it is a challenge to maintain them all daily.