Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 167: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he is satisfied with the operation of and services provided by the probation and welfare service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8488/05]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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My predecessor, Deputy O'Donoghue, set up an expert group to examine the probation and welfare service under the chairmanship of Mr. Brian McCarthy. This group produced its first report in November 1998. The final report was published in May 1999 and made several recommendations.

Many of the recommendations of the expert group report have been implemented by my Department. Staffing levels have been raised. There has been substantial investment in a customised IT system and an IT unit has been established. The new technology, when fully operational, will have the capacity to produce information about the utilisation and effectiveness of community sanctions and will provide information about crime in Ireland not previously available. A common State funded public liability insurance scheme has been put in place to enable a greater number of community groups to have community service projects operated on their premises without the need to incur substantial insurance costs. These are some of the measures which have been implemented.

The service has responsibility for implementing those orders of the court which require the supervision of offenders by the probation and welfare staff, that is, probation and other supervision orders and orders which require work to be performed by way of retribution to society, for example, community service orders. The service also provides to courts pre-sanction assessment reports which enable judges, in determining sentence, to take into account the personal and social circumstances of the offender, the level of risk that further crime will be committed if he or she remains in the community, the attitude of the offender to the victim of the crime and the work programme available to the offender to prevent involvement in further crime.

The service supervises both serious and less serious offenders, who are placed under supervision orders by the courts. It also supervises persons released by order of the Minister of Justice, Equality and Law Reform from prisons and places of detention, including life sentence prisoners who have served substantial periods in custody. It has a youth justice section which has been resourced to implement the provisions of the Children Act 2001 throughout the jurisdiction. It also provides a limited service to the Irish Prison Service, working with the other prison based disciplines towards the rehabilitation of those in prison. In addition, it also prepares detailed assessment reports for the interim parole board.

In recent years the service has been under pressure to meet the growing demands of both the courts and the Prison Service. This has led to some delays in the provision of reports to courts and in the implementation of probation and community service orders. These are some of the issues which are currently being examined by my Department.

In terms of the future organisation and structure of the service, I have set up a small working group involving departmental and probation and welfare officials to build on existing work, including the expert group report and the value for money audit of the service, to identify: the type of services that may be required in the future; their relative priority; the resource implications and different methods of providing the services; and the research and evaluation available or required to determine the effectiveness of options. The group is expected to report before the end of this year.