Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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655. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of members of criminal gangs due to be released from prison in 2021; the extent of plans to ensure they do not return to criminal ways; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7145/21]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by my officials in the Irish Prison Service (IPS) that there are currently 183 prisoners in custody associated with known criminal gangs, with 39 of those due for release in 2021. The Deputy will wish to note that this figure excludes the subversive prisoners in Portlaoise Prison.

Membership or allegiance of these criminal groups fluctuates on a continuous basis with some persons breaking links and others becoming affiliated on a daily basis. It is also the case that prisoners will not always declare their affiliation to certain groupings and it is therefore not possible to provide definitive numbers in relation to the number of known members of criminal groupings currently in custody. It should also be noted that more than one criminal gang may group together under the umbrella of a particular group and in some instances some gangs may form splinter groups due to family or in house disputes.

A suite of assessment and intervention pathways are available to violent offenders in prison to address dynamic risk factors known to be associated with violent offending, in order to reduce risk of re-offending and enhance public protection. This includes offence focused and/or mental health intervention by the IPS Psychology Service and/or Probation Service on an individual or group basis. All violent offenders with a sentence of over 2 years on committal are pro-actively targeted to assess and/or identify the clinical needs/risk factors that led to their offending. This includes those convicted of a gangland violence. In addition specialist programmes, including a gang desistance group, are currently being developed, which incorporates collaboration with men with a history of gang involvement in the development and facilitation of the programme.

A full range of policies, procedures and standard operating procedures are used by the IPS to identify, monitor and manage specific individuals. Management and staff have to ensure that the various factions are kept apart and, as far as possible, that gang members do not have influence over other inmates or criminal activities outside the prisons.

Measures taken on a continuous basis include regular targeted searching; placement in high security locations; close supervision of all visits including the use of screened visits and the barring of certain visitors; the use of CCTV, metal detectors and mobile phone detectors; and the examination and monitoring of mail and telephone calls. The Operational Support Group has a core function to gather and collate intelligence information on criminal gang members in our prisons and to carry out intelligence led searches.

In addition, there is regular contact between the IPS and An Garda Síochána to discuss security issues including the operation of criminal gangs and the release of prisoners who form part of these groupings.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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656. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of prisoners in each prison throughout the country currently undergoing rehabilitative or educational training; the number of unsuccessful applicants for such courses; the number that were successful in the past 12 months; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7146/21]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I can inform the Deputy that the Irish Prison Service (IPS) provides a wide range of rehabilitative programmes to those in custody including education, vocational training, healthcare, psychiatric, psychological, addiction counselling, welfare and spiritual services. These programmes can offer purposeful activity to those in custody while serving their sentences and encouraging them to lead law abiding lives on release. Programmes are available in all prisons and all prisoners are eligible to engage with the services.

On committal, all prisoners are interviewed by the Governor and are informed of the services available in the prison. Prisoners may be referred to services or they can self-refer at a later date. Where Governors consider, on the information available, that a prisoner needs a particular intervention they will initiate a referral.

The strategic objective to have a multi-agency approach to offender management and rehabilitation from pre to post imprisonment in order to reduce re-offending and improve prisoner outcomes, forms a central part of the Prison and Probation Service Joint Strategic Plan.

The IPS Psychology Service operates an integrated, stepped care service model, working with both mental health and criminogenic risk and need. Currently, prison psychologists are engaging with between 620 - 650 people in custody which includes assessment and-or intervention which can be either group or individual rehabilitative programmes.

Education in prisons is delivered in partnership between the Education Training Boards and the IPS in line with the joint Strategy 2019 - 2021 which sets out a commitment to the provision of a broad and flexible curriculum and includes supporting integration and sentence planning.

The focus is on providing education which is quality assured, student centred and which facilitates lifelong learning. Data on the average weekly attendances in Prison Education Centres in 2020 is set out in Table 1 below. It is important to note that Education Centres were closed due to Covid-19 from March 2020 to August 2020.

The guiding principles of vocational training services are to make, work, work-training and other purposeful activities available to all those in custody. Training activities are designed to give as much variety as possible and also to give opportunities for those in prison to acquire practical skills which will help them secure employment on release. The average prison population engaged in vocational training in 2020 per prison is set out in Table 2.

The IPS 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 along with the centralising of coordination and quality assurance arrangements have enabled the prison service to extend the number of available courses and activities with certification to people in custody. Unfortunately, the manner in which records are collated does not allow the provision of statistics on those who were successful or unsuccessful applicants for such training.