Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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445. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if she will ensure other addiction counsellors are sourced as a matter of urgency for the prison service; her views on the situation whereby in Mountjoy Prison there is currently only two addiction/MQI counsellors for the entire prison, given by her own admission (details supplied) 70% of the population have addiction issues in a prison of approximately 800 prisons; and her views on whether two addiction councillors for 550+ prisoners with addiction issues is an adequate number for provision of services. [17690/24]

Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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446. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality further to Parliamentary Question No. 377 of 10 October 2023, if seven out of every ten prisoners have addiction issues, the reason millions are being spent on hundreds of new places in prison, when the money could be better spent addressing the root cause of incarceration for many of the existing populations, i.e. addiction, which would entail hiring more addiction counsellors. [17697/24]