Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There is also a major issue for those coming out of prison and being referred to a scheme. What the Minister is saying is sometimes not filtering down to the officials. Those involved in the projects are dealing with the officials and they are getting a different answer from them. Another point is about how one measures success and progression. For the officials, it is getting into education and getting work but for people who have been addicted, staying clean and sober is progress, getting their children out of care is progress, getting visiting rights to their children is progress and not going back to prison is progress. The projects need a lot more flexibility.

Most of those I know who work in them have been working there for ten or 20 years or for even longer. They are familiar with all of the issues. The gateway project, which I would very much like the Minister to visit to see some of these issues on the ground, gets 9.8% of its annual training budget from the Department of Social Protection. The inordinate amount of administrative work that its staff have to do from that budget is taking them from other work on the project.

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