Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

333. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of unhindered full-time addiction nurse posts within the prison service. [38670/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I can advise the Deputy that the Irish Prison Service employs nurses across the prison estate to provide primary care to those in custody and work as part of the prison healthcare team.

I can further advise that the Irish Prison Service does not currently employ full-time Addiction Nurses. There are, however, a number of primary care nurses who are assigned the function of carrying out specialist addiction assessments, taking account of the operational demands of the prison.

As the Deputy may be aware, the Irish Prison Service engages Merchants Quay Ireland (MQI) to provide a prison-based addiction counselling service across the entire Irish Prison Service estate (with the exception of Arbour Hill Prison and the Training Unit where the clinical need is currently under review).

The MQI service provides a range of counselling and intervention skills related to substance misuse and dependency. These skills include motivational interviewing and enhancement therapy, a twelve step facilitation programme, cognitive behavioural therapy and harm reduction approaches and people in custody are offered one to one counselling and group work interventions.

Furthermore, the Deputy may also wish to be informed that the Irish Prison Service has recently employed a national lead to oversee the provision of Mental Heath and Addition in Irish prisons.