Results 6,921-6,940 of 17,498 for speaker:Helen McEntee

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Prison Service (30 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: As the Deputy will be aware, the Irish Prison Service must accept into custody all people committed to prison by the Courts. As such, the Irish Prison Service has no control over the numbers committed to custody at any given time. Today there were 4,768 people in custody with 101 people sleeping on mattress on the floor. Where the number of people in custody exceeds the maximum capacity in...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence (30 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: As the Deputy is aware, combatting all forms of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence (DSGBV) is a priority for me and my Department and this is reflected in a range of policies and legislation I have introduced, as well as unprecedented increases secured in successive Budget allocations. As the Deputy will be aware, in June 2022 I published an ambitious €363 million, Zero...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (Revised)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Revised)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Revised)
Vote 24 - Justice (Revised)
Vote 41 - Policing Authority (Revised)
Vote 44 - Data Protection Commission (Revised) (30 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: The additional €28 million for overtime is welcome. That will not just be allocated in our capital city, where there has been a particular focus; it is to have a benefit right across the country. It must be taken in the context of a number of other changes. First and foremost, the way we can respond to issues as they arise is by ensuring we have as many gardaí to respond as...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (Revised)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Revised)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Revised)
Vote 24 - Justice (Revised)
Vote 41 - Policing Authority (Revised)
Vote 44 - Data Protection Commission (Revised) (30 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: On the last question, I do not have any sense of the difference yet. I have an idea of the overall number who have applied to date. I will not state that until after the closing date. I am very interested in seeing the final figures. I never expected that we would have thousands, perhaps over the age of 35, applying at the same time. I certainly believe there will be interest. It was an...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (Revised)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Revised)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Revised)
Vote 24 - Justice (Revised)
Vote 41 - Policing Authority (Revised)
Vote 44 - Data Protection Commission (Revised) (30 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: And older, perhaps. We need to make it worth everybody's while, at the same time. On transport, the allocation will be in addition to what we have. The aircraft will be of higher capability, particularly in dealing with our international partners and having the ability to focus on particular types of criminal activity that we cannot focus on given the types of aircraft we have. As I...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (Revised)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Revised)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Revised)
Vote 24 - Justice (Revised)
Vote 41 - Policing Authority (Revised)
Vote 44 - Data Protection Commission (Revised) (30 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: At this stage, all members have access to the Garda apps and the mobility devices. As the Deputy said, they are working really well. Gardaí do not have to go back to stations but are able to access information from the car or from wherever they are working. They are able to identify information about individuals if they are stopped or otherwise. There has been a body of work under...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (Revised)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Revised)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Revised)
Vote 24 - Justice (Revised)
Vote 41 - Policing Authority (Revised)
Vote 44 - Data Protection Commission (Revised) (30 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: Yes, everybody has access to the mobility app.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (Revised)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Revised)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Revised)
Vote 24 - Justice (Revised)
Vote 41 - Policing Authority (Revised)
Vote 44 - Data Protection Commission (Revised) (30 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: In regard to Garda staff, the objective of making sure we have an increase in our overall numbers is to ensure as far as possible that front-line gardaí are not behind the desk doing paperwork or work that Garda staff could do. There will always be a level of work that gardaí need to do, inputting data and information, but certainly the objective is that the more Garda staff we...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (Revised)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Revised)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Revised)
Vote 24 - Justice (Revised)
Vote 41 - Policing Authority (Revised)
Vote 44 - Data Protection Commission (Revised) (30 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: I thank the Deputy. He is right that one of the biggest challenges is making sure that we have enough prison staff to manage the overall prison population, which is increasing, but also to make sure prisoners are able to access their education and health needs. They are impacted where there are not enough people essentially to transport them to that class or whatever it is they are going...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (Revised)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Revised)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Revised)
Vote 24 - Justice (Revised)
Vote 41 - Policing Authority (Revised)
Vote 44 - Data Protection Commission (Revised) (30 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: The reduction in prisoner care and rehabilitation is primarily related to inflation and costs that were specific to Covid last year. There is no decrease in service. It is just that last year there was inflation in the overall costs, which we do not expect to happen this year. On mental health more broadly, a body of work was done by the former Minister of State with responsibility for...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (Revised)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Revised)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Revised)
Vote 24 - Justice (Revised)
Vote 41 - Policing Authority (Revised)
Vote 44 - Data Protection Commission (Revised) (30 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: One of the ways in which we can support people is by supporting some of the organisations that are specifically there to work with people. I met with some of them in the Dóchas Centre only last week. Through separate funding in my Department, I have tried to invest in many of those organisations so that they can expand where possible and also offer as much of a service to as many...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (Revised)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Revised)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Revised)
Vote 24 - Justice (Revised)
Vote 41 - Policing Authority (Revised)
Vote 44 - Data Protection Commission (Revised) (30 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: Certainly, one of the recommendations of the Drogheda implementation plan was a prison link worker. I met with that group last year. It has just one prison link worker in place but it is working very well and has already had a positive impact. A very small number of people can have a very positive impact.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (Revised)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Revised)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Revised)
Vote 24 - Justice (Revised)
Vote 41 - Policing Authority (Revised)
Vote 44 - Data Protection Commission (Revised) (30 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: The short answer is "Yes". We have allocated 24 additional new judges among the courts, and there will now be a period for the judicial planning working group to look at how the 24 additional judges and, most important, the structures and the support around them will have an impact on the overall lists. There are a number of changes to the modernisation programme and to ways in which our...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (Revised)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Revised)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Revised)
Vote 24 - Justice (Revised)
Vote 41 - Policing Authority (Revised)
Vote 44 - Data Protection Commission (Revised) (30 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: An additional €3.4 million was allocated for the Probation Service this year, so it has seen an increase, to deal with the number of different services it provides. It is looking at further configuring the networks of the community-based officers to deliver restorative justice services, our joint agency response to crime, JARC, and the youth joint agency response, YJARC. That will...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (Revised)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Revised)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Revised)
Vote 24 - Justice (Revised)
Vote 41 - Policing Authority (Revised)
Vote 44 - Data Protection Commission (Revised) (30 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: I think we also need to look at other ways in which we can improve, such as by making sure the community services side of things is operating in a more efficient and effective way, which it possibly is not at the moment. More work can be and needs to be done there in order that fewer people who did not need to go to prison go to prison. There are a number of strands to this. We now have...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (Revised)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Revised)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Revised)
Vote 24 - Justice (Revised)
Vote 41 - Policing Authority (Revised)
Vote 44 - Data Protection Commission (Revised) (30 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: On A27, the passenger information unit, this is an increase of €1.6 million provided to the Irish passenger information unit. The fund is to hire personnel to undertake ICT projects and the primary function here is to collect and process passenger name data, PNR, and passenger recognition data for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of terrorist offences or...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (Revised)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Revised)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Revised)
Vote 24 - Justice (Revised)
Vote 41 - Policing Authority (Revised)
Vote 44 - Data Protection Commission (Revised) (30 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: That is being progressed at the moment. It is still being worked on. I expect it to come before the Houses at some stage this year. I do not have a definite date for that yet, unfortunately.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (Revised)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Revised)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Revised)
Vote 24 - Justice (Revised)
Vote 41 - Policing Authority (Revised)
Vote 44 - Data Protection Commission (Revised) (30 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: Everybody supports the idea of funds being taken from criminals and put directly back into the communities they impact. I was really pleased to be able to set up this fund. In the last two years it has gone from €2 million to €3 million to €3.75 million this year and obviously I want to see that increase further. The overall objective of the fund is to support...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (Revised)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Revised)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Revised)
Vote 24 - Justice (Revised)
Vote 41 - Policing Authority (Revised)
Vote 44 - Data Protection Commission (Revised) (30 Jan 2024)

Helen McEntee: The objective is to have one community safety partnership per local authority. In Galway and Cork, for example, there are city and county councils so there would be two partnership in those counties. Obviously in Dublin there are four local authorities but the intention is that there will be many more than four partnerships, given the population numbers and density. A final decision has...