Seán Connick (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for his good wishes on my appointment.

I am taking the matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. Perhaps it is useful to place on the record of the House the level of funding provided by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, through the Probation Service, to community based projects that assist the Probation Service in its core work. This year alone the Department will provide funding in the region of €11 million to approximately 50 such projects across the country. To the best of the Minister's knowledge all of the projects are operating with community support and but for the voluntary participation of local people who agree to sit on the boards of management of the projects we could not support the various client groups in the community thus assisting in reintegration, improving job skills and generally assisting in increasing community safety.

Like all streams of taxpayers' funding it is important that we constantly monitor and evaluate such funding and I am pleased to tell the House that the Department undertook a value for money and policy review of all funded projects which was published on the Department's website on 2 September 2008. The conclusions were broadly favourable, recognising the importance of the support provided by community based projects to the work of the Probation Service. The Probation Service has a dedicated unit in place within its structures to implement the range of recommendations set out in the report and to constantly examine the added value provided by individual projects.

The project which is the subject of this Adjournment debate has operated in the Dublin 1 area for the past 15 years. I am sure the Deputy is fully aware the project provides an intensive supervision programme for male offenders, in the 20 to 25 years age group, in the greater Dublin area who are subject to Probation Service supervision. It can cater for up to 12 clients at any one time and the programme is delivered during office hours from Monday to Friday. Those who come to the project do so by appointment. The programme itself is delivered by a multidisciplinary team with the Probation Service as the lead agency. For the information of the House and by way of clarity I should say this project is not an addiction treatment centre nor is it a drop-in facility.

By way of background to the proposed move of the project to new premises on Wolfe Tone Street, I will provide some general history of the project. For the past 15 years the project has been accommodated in leased premises in Parnell Street, Dublin 1. These premises are no longer suitable for the longer term operation of the project and, in any event, the lease to the current premises will come to an end in a matter of months. As the recommendation was that the existing premises would not meet future requirements, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform gave approval to the board of management of the project in August 2009 to tender for the fit-out of proposed new premises on Wolfe Tone Street. The work was advertised on e-tenders by the project and contracts were awarded last December. Work commenced in January with an expected completion date of May 2010 for the work.

As the project is fully funded by the Department, through the Probation Service, it fell to the Department to enter into a lease for the Wolfe Tone Street premises for use by the project in question. During the negotiations for the lease the Department was advised by the Chief State Solicitors Office and it had no reason to believe the planning permission for a change of use obtained by the landlord prior to the Department's interest in the ground floor space was not valid. However, the Department has been made aware that queries have been raised around the status of the planning permission in existence in recent times. Those matters are being examined further in consultation with our legal advisers.

The Minister trusts the Deputy will accept the bona fides of this project, which has been running in the inner city for a considerable number of years, supporting some of the most vulnerable citizens to lead more constructive lives. The project - based on its 15 years of experience - now needs new premises to continue its valuable work.

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