Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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433. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality further to Parliamentary Question No. 345 of 3 March 2015, if the reduction in the funding allocation from €14.393 million in 2008 down to €10.732 million has led to a reduction in access to these services for prisoners; her views on the importance of peer support models in addressing recidivism rates such as the Uservoice model in the United Kingdom; and her further views on financially supporting the Irish-based peer support models such as Care After Prison in Dublin. [11166/15]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Probation Service supports a number of Community Based Organisations to provide a range of services in addressing offending behaviour and facilitating reintegration. All such Organisations aim to offer a service to offenders who would otherwise not be in a position to avail of a mainstream service opportunity.

Since 2008, the Probation Service has agreed a range of reductions in grant allocations to these organisations. This was undertaken to ensure value for money and the need to reduce public expenditure generally in light of the economic difficulties then facing the State. Despite the overall reduction in public funds, the community organisations were able to maintain the level of services by streamlining their cost structure. Indeed, funding was also set aside within the funding allocations in both 2014 and 2015 for new developments and the expansion of some existing services.

The Irish Prison Service and the Probation Service work closely through their joint strategy to provide community support schemes. Community support is now operational in Dublin, Cork, and Limerick and includes all female offenders in this category. In 2014, Care After Prison, which is in receipt of funding from the Irish Prison Service and employs ex-offenders as support workers, was able to extend the community support scheme in Dublin. These programmes are aimed at prisoners who are serving sentences of between 3 and 12 months.

I might add that rehabilitation and reintegration are at the centre of our penal policy and are significant factors in reducing crime and offending behaviour. The Community Return Scheme is considered to be a most effective support model to reduce recidivism rates for those prisoners with longer sentences.