James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising the important matter of prison access to psychology services. As he pointed out, a significant number of people committed to prison have mental health issues. I assure him I am aware that if we address these issues, we can help to break the cycle of offending.

The programme for Government commits to considering the mental health and addiction treatments of persons in prisons and the primary care support provided on release. The Deputy will be aware that the report of the high-level task force considering the mental health and addiction challenges of people interacting with the criminal justice system was published last August by the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly. The recommendations made by the task force aim to ensure better support for people at the earliest point at which they come into contact with the criminal justice system. They build on existing best practice to ensure there is adequate provision of services and sufficient safeguards in place to support rehabilitation and through care from custody to the community. A progress report will be prepared in quarter 4 of this year.

In addition, the report on the health needs assessment for the Irish Prison Service, which is the first comprehensive health assessment undertaken for the service, was considered by the Government and published in May. Taken together, these important and comprehensive pieces of work represent a coherent and all-of-system approach to addressing offender behaviour, providing rehabilitative and mental health supports and managing the prison population in a considered and planned way.

Separately and highlighting the important and diverse range of work in prisons, I advise the Deputy that, with the aim of supporting prisoner rehabilitation and access to employment post release, the prisoner education task force was established on 23 May 2023 and is jointly chaired by me and the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris.

Further, both I and the Minister, Deputy McEntee, are committed to ensuring the Prison Service has the resources needed to implement the required changes. The core work of the Prison Service psychology service is to address the mental health and offence-related needs of those in prison. In budget 2023, additional dedicated funding of €970,000 was secured to bolster the number of psychologists employed by the Prison Service. I have been advised by the service that it has the ability to recruit the following new psychology posts from the funding provided: one principal specialist psychologist; two whole-time equivalent senior psychologists; and 6.6 whole-time equivalent staff grade psychologists.

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