The Probation Service in Donegal is coming under strain and is under-staffed, a court has been told.
Judge Paul Kelly told this week’s sitting of Letterkenny District Court that he was reluctant to call on the Probation Service for a number of cases that were before him.
Judge Kelly outlined briefly the difficulties being experienced by the over-burdened staff at the probation offices in Letterkenny.
“The Probation Services don’t have enough staff or enough time to be dealing with some of these matters,” the Judge sighed.
“The Probation Services staff are under-staffed and I am reluctant to refer some of these matters to them. The staff there are over worked already.”
In 2016, an additional €1.3 million was due to be allocated to the Probation Service to allow it to recruit new staff.
At the time, Minister Francis Fitzgerald said the money was to enable the Service “to increase its use of supervised community sanctions to manage offenders in the community.
However, with a growing number of defendants having cases refereed to the Service, staff are feeling the weight and Judge Kelly was sympathetic to their situation.
“They are doing their best, but they are vastly under-resourced down there,” he said.