Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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160. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if rehabilitative training is available to all first-time offenders in prison; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10633/16]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by the Irish Prison Service that it provides a wide range of rehabilitative programmes to persons in custody that include education, vocational training, healthcare, psychiatric, psychological, counselling, welfare and spiritual services. These programmes offer purposeful activity to those in custody while serving their sentences and encouraging them to lead law abiding lives on release. These programmes are available in all prisons and all persons in custody are eligible to use the services.

On committal, including committal for first time offences, all persons in custody are interviewed by the Governor and are informed of the services available in the prison. Persons in custody may be referred to services or they can self refer at a later date.

The development of persons in custody rehabilitative programmes forms a central part of the Irish Prison Service. There is a clear commitment to enhance sentence planning through the Integrated Sentence Management system which involves an emphasis on individuals taking greater personal responsibility for their own development through active engagement with both specialist and non-specialist services in the prisons. The end result is a person-centred multi-disciplinary approach to working with persons in custody with provision for initial assessment, goal setting and periodic review to measure progress.

The Department of Education and Skills provides an allocation of 220 whole time teacher equivalents in partnership with the Irish Prison Service through the Education and Training Boards (ETB). The focus is on providing education which is quality assured, student centred and facilitates lifelong learning through helping those in custody to cope with their sentence, achieve personal development and prepare for life after release. A broad and flexible curriculum is provided which ranges from basic literacy classes and peer led tutoring to Open University. There is an increasing focus on QQI (formerly FETAC) accreditation as the modular structure is suitable to the needs of students in prison.

A top priority for the Irish Prison Service is ensuring help for those with reading and writing problems and to ensure that peer mentoring programmes are currently active in all of our prisons.

The Irish Prison Service has also been expanding the number of accredited courses and opportunities available to prisoners in Work Training in recent years. Enhanced partnership arrangements with accrediting bodies such as City and Guilds, the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA), and the Guild of Launders and Cleaners and the centralising of coordination and quality assurance arrangements have enabled the Irish Prison Service to extend the number of available courses and activities with certification.

The guiding principles which underpin the prisons' work and training service are to make available work, work-training and other purposeful activities to those in custody. Training activities are chosen to give as much variety as possible and also to give opportunities for those in prison to acquire practical accredited skills which will help them secure employment on release.