Results 41-60 of 1,140,254 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Peter Burke OR speaker:Damien English OR speaker:Simon Coveney OR speaker:Darren O'Rourke OR speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice OR speaker:Cathal Berry OR speaker:Alan Dillon OR speaker:Niamh Smyth OR speaker:Róisín Shortall OR speaker:Jennifer Whitmore OR speaker:Jackie Cahill OR speaker:Denise Mitchell OR speaker:Michael Lowry OR speaker:Johnny Mythen OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív OR speaker:Patricia Ryan OR speaker:Jennifer Murnane O'Connor OR speaker:Catherine Connolly OR speaker:Rose Conway-Walsh OR speaker:Patrick Costello OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív98 OR speaker:Paul Murphy OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív15 OR speaker:John Brady OR speaker:Helen McEntee OR speaker:Bernard Durkan OR speaker:Cormac Devlin OR speaker:Joe Flaherty OR speaker:Francis Noel Duffy OR speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív46 OR speaker:Dessie Ellis OR speaker:Pat Buckley OR speaker:Thomas Byrne OR speaker:Peadar Tóibín OR speaker:Ossian Smyth)

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Helen McEntee: The probation service has received significant additional funding. The Deputy is right. Just this morning I was speaking to the head of the Probation Service. There is a 57-member panel of prison probation officers. There is also a 53-member panel of probation assistants. That is a new role brought into effect in the last few years to assist our probation officers. This is to try and...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Helen McEntee: I am sorry will the Deputy repeat that figure?

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Helen McEntee: A very small proportion of that is for the slopping out cases. Others are cases brought either by prisoners or by prison officers.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Helen McEntee: There would be a mixture. I will get a breakdown for the Deputy but it would be a mixture.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Helen McEntee: This year has seen an almost 20% increase in current spend for prisons compared to last year. This year was an acknowledgement that there needed to be a step change and a significant increase for our prisons for the reasons the Deputy has outlined. Our prison population has increased. The number of people on remand in our prisons in the past ten years alone has increased significantly,...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Helen McEntee: No. I do not think we can predict. Every year, I have always tried to get as much money as possible for all of the different Votes. Some years, you get more while other years, you do not. It is hard to predict how many prisoners will be across the entire prison estate but I believe this year represents a step change and an acknowledgement of the fact that our prison numbers have gone up...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Helen McEntee: No. Last year, I strove to get as high a budget as I could for the prison service.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Helen McEntee: What I got last year allowed me to increase staff numbers significantly but there was a significant increase last year in our capital spend. This year was a step change but last year was also a significant increase in the overall capital spend but also for the first time in many years, we have significantly increased the number of prison officers. We have continuous recruitment campaigns...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Helen McEntee: Again, it is hard to tell. I believe it will meet the vast majority of requirements for this year.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Helen McEntee: It would have been more challenging last year and I think that was clear then but I do believe that the significant increase this year will assist us with regard to where we are this time next year if we are looking for a Supplementary Estimate.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Helen McEntee: No. He is always very easy to deal with.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Helen McEntee: It is always hard to predict because numbers do fluctuate. They go up and down and you have costs you do not expect. We have had issues around netting and restrictive measures put in place to prevent drugs getting into prisons. Some of those have been damaged this year, it has cost millions to restore them and that is not money that could have been predicted or planned for so there is...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Helen McEntee: There are four larger projects across four of the current prison estate. Refurbishments are happening in the prison estate. Some of them involve bringing prison space that would not have been in use back into use and identifying other space. This includes the Curragh. It is across a variety of different prison estates.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Helen McEntee: That has not yet been decided.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Helen McEntee: That has not been decided.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Helen McEntee: Obviously we want all public services and spaces to be accessible to everybody. That does require either upgrading older buildings or in the case of Tralee, developing a new court house. The site has been bought for that project and the intention is for the design and works to begin as soon as possible. There has been significant investment in new court houses across the country in the...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Helen McEntee: Yes, absolutely.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Helen McEntee: I do not think it will be finished by next year, given it has not yet started, but I would certainly like it to have started by next year. It will be a fantastic facility for families, not just in Dublin but throughout the region, and there has been significant investment in a number of new courthouses throughout the country. As we continue to develop our infrastructure and look to the...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Helen McEntee: I cannot say progress will not be made in the next year, although I do not believe it will be made between now and the end of this year in terms of the planning. Nevertheless, we need to get it to the stage where the design will be progressed and where planning can be applied for. The site was bought only this year, so we have to go through the stages and progress it as quickly as we can....

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána (Supplementary)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Supplementary)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Supplementary)
Vote 24 - Justice (Supplementary) (17 Oct 2024)

Helen McEntee: I can certainly speak to the Courts Service about that.