Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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611. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the funding given to the TRAIL programme run under PACE annually. [6472/21]

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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612. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of persons temporarily housed through TRAIL in 2019 and 2020, respectively. [6473/21]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 611 and 612 together.

TRAIL is part of the Peter McVerry Trust (PMVT) organisation and was established in 2004. It provides transitional high quality accommodation to offenders released from prison, who would otherwise be homeless. The project aims to reduce client’s risk of re-offending by alleviating the stresses which homelessness creates.

Programmes and services provided by the TRAIL include six months accommodation placement for both male and females released from custody. TRAIL supports reintegration into the community, including sourcing accommodation for independent living, sourcing employment and training opportunities, and the provision of counselling and therapy services.

My Department through the Probation Service provide a contribution annually of €72,000 towards this service for clients from within the Criminal Justice system.

TRAIL have advised that for both 2019 and 2020 the organisation supported 50 and 52 clients respectively, with transitional residential accommodation in PMVT Housing Service of which approximately 60% in each year were Probation Service clients.