asked the Minister for Justice the number of welfare officers exclusively attached to the prison system; the number of welfare officers in each of the State's ten civilian prisons in each year since 1969; the functions of the prison welfare service; the number of released prisoners placed in (a) part-time (b) temporary and (c) permanent employment, by the prison welfare service; and the figures to indicate the numbers of releases from each of the State's ten prisons placed for each year since 1969.

Twenty welfare officers and two senior welfare officers are employed in the prisons and other places of detention under the aegis of my Department. The distribution of those officers throughout the ten institutions is indicated in the attached table which, with the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to circulate with the Official Report. In addition, five welfare officers from my Department will shortly be assigned to work in the special schools operating under the aegis of the Department of Education. To complete the picture it is important to understand that these welfare officers form part of an integrated service, which, in addition, includes six senior welfare officers and 39 welfare officers operating throughout the country on what is generally referred to as probation work and who liaise with their colleagues in the institutions, so that a service can be provided to the offender in his home setting as well as in the institutional setting.

In relation to persons in custody, the welfare service strives to provide as comprehensive a counselling service as is possible with a view to the resocialisation of the offender. Efforts to secure employment for offenders who wish to work on release are only a part of the work of welfare officers and detailed statistics of employment secured have not been kept. The available statistics, all of which relate to settled as distinct from casual employment, are as follows:

Following is the table:

Number of Welfare Officers in Prisons and Places of Detention

* Service provided by welfare officers from other prisons and from the courts.

Two Senior welfare officers have overall responsibility.

Assuming that the discharge rate from prisons is about 300 and this accumulates over a number of years, is the Minister satisfied that the number of welfare officers is enough for the multifarious jobs which they have to carry out in relation to the supervision of social welfare, homes, employment and many other things? It is an enormous task for what appears to be a relatively small staff.

I accept much of what the Deputy says and I have appointed a number of extra welfare officers. I will try to get more because they are doing very valuable work and I should like to see them having greater success in placing people.

Has the Minister any special figure in mind? Is it ten or 20 more?

I have a figure in mind but I am not sure how accurate it is. I can sent it to the Deputy. I think 65 extra people were taken on from last July, but I should like to check that out. I will get in touch with the Deputy about it.

15.