asked the Minister for Justice if he will consider the appointment of a full-time probation officer to work in conjunction with Cork district court.

As I indicated in the House on 11th February, I have under examination proposals for improving the probation service which envisage the recruitment of a substantial number of paid probation officers as well as an expansion of the voluntary service.

In Dublin we have six full-time probation officers while for Cork, a city with a population of roughly 120,000, is it not surprising that we have not even one full-time probation officer?

The Deputy can take it, as I said in my reply, that I am not satisfied with this position and in the expanded service we hope to have a full-time probation officer in Cork.