Gary Gannon
Question:133. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Justice the average daily number of people on community based restorative justice programmes in 2024; the target numbers for 2025; and the budget allocated. [21485/25]
View answerWednesday, 30 April 2025
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Written answers
As part of the Probation Service’s overall strategy to further develop capacity to deliver a high-quality service and meet the requirements contained in section 26 of the Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Act 2017, the Service established a National Restorative Justice and Victim Services Unit (RJVSU) in October 2018. The Unit meets two core objectives:
1. Provide leadership and support for the consistent and integrated provision of a range of restorative justice models within the context of Probation assessment and supervision.
2. Act as the central point of contact for the Service to ensure an effective response to requests and queries from victims. This may include a request for engagement in a restorative justice process.
All Probation interventions seek to address the harm caused by offending behaviour and consequently victim consideration is incorporated into pre-sanction assessment as well as supervision. At its core, restorative justice aims to enable all those affected by an offence to participate.
In Budget 2025, the Probation Service received an additional €4 million, bringing the total budget to over €60m to cover Probation staffing and operational costs, to expand crime diversion programmes, to support step down facilities and community-based alternatives to imprisonment, including restorative justice. The Programme for Government has committed to continuing the national roll-out of the voluntary restorative justice programme.
The Probation Service delivers restorative justice directly, and through several community-based organisations that receive referrals at specific points in the criminal justice process and the Probation Service currently provides funding to five community-based organisations to provide dedicated restorative justice programmes. These 5 programmes, and the areas they provide services to, are listed below:
• Restorative Justice Services - Dublin, Wicklow, Meath and Kildare
• Restorative Justice in the Community - Tipperary, Laois, Offaly and has recently expanded to Westmeath, Carlow and Kilkenny
• Le Chéile - Limerick, & Clare, and has recently expanded in Cork and extended Kerry
• Cornmarket Project - Wexford
• Tuam Community Training Centre - Galway, Sligo, and Roscommon.
Other Probation Service funded CBOs also use restorative approaches in their work with clients to promote respectful relationships and address the harm caused by their offending.
In 2020, Restorative Justice Strategies for Change (RJS4C) Ireland, of which the Probation Service is a core member, began mapping the organisations involved in restorative justice, the levels of training, and the use of restorative justice and restorative practices in the Irish criminal justice system. RJS4C have published data tracking restorative justice in Ireland from 2019-2023: restorativejustice.ie/service-map/. Data in relation to 2024 is currently being finalised by the Probation Service and will be published as part of their Annual Report for 2024.
Restorative Justice figures for 2024 will also be published by RJS4C in the coming months and preliminary data positively indicates upward growth in Restorative Justice referrals. The Probation Service will shortly publish a three-year Action Plan 2025-27, ‘Restoring Relationships: Repairing Harm and Empowering Voice through Restorative Justice’ which has an objective of increasing Restorative Justice referrals and interventions by 10% each year of the Action Plan.