Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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368. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of prisoners, per year, by institution, from 2010 to date; and the number of probation officers by institution for the corresponding period, in tabular form. [43924/23]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Probation Service is an executive agency of the Department of Justice with the primary purpose of assessment and management of offenders in the community and is committed to working to reduce offending, create safer communities and fewer victims through rehabilitation. The Service has a presence in every prison nationwide, working as part of multi-disciplinary teams supporting reintegration. Probation staff conduct assessments and undertake offence-focused, pre-release and reintegration work with people who will be subject to court-mandated supervision orders upon their release from custody.

In addition to the Probation Officers listed in the table below, there is also one Assistant Principal Probation Officer, seven Senior Probation Officers and five administrative staff allocated to the prisons – thirteen staff in total as of 1 October 2023.

As of 1 October 2023, there are four Probation Officer vacancies across the prison region: one in Mountjoy Male, two in Wheatfield/Cloverhill and one in the Midlands.

Table 1 provides the number of committals by institution for the period in question, it should be noted an individual can be committed on more than one occasion.

Table 2 provides the daily average prison population by institution for the period in question.

Table 3 provides the number of Probation Officers (Full Time Equivalents) Prison & Risk Resettlement at end of Each Year 2010 to 30th September 2023.

Table 1 - Committals by institution for the period 2010 to 2023

Year 2023 (up to and including 30 September)

Table 2 - Daily Average number of prisoners by institution for the period 2010 to 2023

*St Patricks Institution closed down on 07th April 2017

**The Training Unit temporally closed down on 12th May 2017 and re-opened on 18th July 2022.

Table 3 - Number of Probation Officers (Full Time Equivalents) Prison & Risk Resettlement at end of Each Year 2010 to 30th September 2023

*The Sex Offender Treatment Programme moved to the Midlands prison and continued to be led by prison psychology staff with input from Midlands Probation team from 2018 onwards.