The Probation Service has been criticised by a judge for its failure to have a probation officer available in court on Tuesday. Judge Eirinn McKiernan was dealing with the case of a young woman who appeared at Trim District Court on a shoplifting charge and sought to see whether she would be an appropriate candidate for a probation report. However, the judge was told that there was no probation officer in court.
The judge said that this was not the first time the Probation Service failed to have someone in court and she found this “completely unacceptable”. She made it clear that she was not attaching blame for this to any individual probation officer. Having probation officers in court was a very important part of the justice system she said. The judge repeated that she had no comment to make on individual officers. “I am told that they don’t have the staff but then that is totally unacceptable”, she said. She put the defendant’s case back to later this month for assessment of suitability for probation.
