Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 391: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform his plans to expand the drug court programme; his plans to provide judges with the option of sentencing offenders to mandatory drug treatment programmes in addition to prison; the cost of this proposed initiative; the ability for the prison service to cater for such drug treatment programmes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40048/08]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I can inform the Deputy that the Drug Treatment Court, which originally operated on a pilot basis in the North inner city of Dublin, has been placed on a permanent footing and extended to the Dublin 7 area. The Court uses a multi-disciplinary approach and involves a range of Government Departments and agencies charged with dealing with various aspects of the problem of drug misuse. The presiding judge in this Court operates with the assistance of a large back-up team which includes a probation officer, an addiction nurse, a Garda liaison officer, an education/training representative and counsellors.

My Department is currently examining the operation of the court and my officials are looking at best practice elsewhere to see how the Court's rather modest throughput levels might be increased.

A number of sentencing options are already available to judges in relation to drug treatment. Section 99(4) of the Criminal Justice Act 2006 permits a court to suspend a prison sentence on certain conditions, some of which are mandatory while others are at the court's discretion, including a condition that the person undergo appropriate treatment for drug, alcohol or substance addiction. In addition, section 28 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977 permits a court to remand persons convicted of certain drug related offences and, on foot of a court ordered medical report, to arrange for the medical treatment or care of such persons.

I can further inform the Deputy that the Irish Prison Service has committed significant investment to improving Drug Treatment Resources across prisons in recent years. The potential for any legislative or policy change to impact on those existing services would require examination by the Irish Prison Service from a resource and service provision perspective. Equally, the Probation Service would be willing to cooperate in any possible expansion of the Drug Court Programme subject to the necessary resources being available.