1103. Deputy Patrick Costello asked the Minister for Justice the number of addiction counsellors employed by the Irish Prison Service, by institution and by year, from 2013 to date; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34544/24]

Helen McEntee, Minister for Justice: The Irish Prison Service provides a health care service for people in custody with addictions in a structured, safe and professional way in line with international best practice. The Irish Prison Service continues to be committed to, and involved with, the National Drugs Strategy in partnership with community colleagues and organisations.

It is the policy of the Irish Prison Service that, where a person committed to prison gives a history of opiate use and tests positive for opioids, they are offered a medically assisted, symptomatic detoxification, if clinically indicated.

Patients can, as part of the assessment process, discuss other treatment options with healthcare staff and those treatment options may include stabilisation on methadone, maintenance for those who wish to continue on maintenance while in prison, and when they return to the community on release. 

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.

The information requested by the Deputy in respect of the number of MQI Addiction Counsellors by institution is available from 2016 and is provided in the table below.  The current sanctioned quota for Addiction Counsellors is 20 and I am advised by the Irish Prison Service that MQI are advancing recruitment of 2.4 additional counsellors and that it is expected that these Addiction Counsellors will be in post in the coming weeks.