Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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Question 203: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the reason for discontinuing the funding for the CONNECT project in prisons; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7263/05]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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The CONNECT project was launched in 2000 as part of the Irish Prison Service training and development programme. The funding involved is provided annually by the Exchequer as part of the prisons Vote. Expenditure since 2000 has gone mainly to funding salary and incidental costs incurred in providing vocational training in the prisons and the provision of support to the project by the National Training and Development Institute, or NTDI, as well as meeting the cost of some capital works and materials used in the manufacture of products in prison workshops for the Special Olympics in 2003. The CONNECT projects at Mountjoy Prison, the Dóchas Centre and the training unit were established with the support of the NTDI and are now capable of independent operation. A process of internal review during 2002 prompted a refocusing of the project prior to its roll-out to further institutions. In particular, the review identified the need for new management structures to support the project's sentence management processes better in the delivering institutions.

The CONNECT project is currently being rolled out at Limerick Prison with renewed NTDI support, and the projects at Mountjoy Prison, the Dóchas Centre and the training unit, which have been affected by the current industrial relations and financial restrictions, will resume operations if and when there is a successful outcome to the current industrial relations process with the Prison Officers' Association. As the Deputy will be aware, members of that association will shortly be balloting on the proposal for organisational change recently concluded with the Irish Prison Service at the Labour Relations Commission following lengthy negotiations.