The Probation Service is an agency within the Department of Justice and Equality whose function is to contribute to public safety by the provision of probation supervision, community service, offending behaviour programmes and specialist support services to both adult and young offenders. It also provides a probation service to prisons and places of detention to rehabilitate offenders and facilitate prisoner re-integration.
Reporting to the Deputy Secretary, Criminal Justice, the Director of the Probation Service will be responsible for the proper governance, strategic leadership and management of the Service. There is a current staff complement of over 400 and a current annual budget of €49 million.
The ideal candidate will have:
• Excellent senior management and leadership experience in a multifunctional organisation of significant complexity and scale;
• Experience which demonstrates finely developed interpersonal skills to enable the post-holder to operate effectively and gain credibility with the key players and top management figures in all Justice and Legal bodies as well as across Government;
• A track record of sound judgement in pressured situations and high level strategic ability and decision making skills;
• Knowledge of the criminal justice system;
• Demonstrated capacity to provide leadership, promote the development of an excellent and inclusive team-based working environment, and to cultivate a future generation of highly-skilled leaders in the Department.
For more information about the position of Director General of the Irish Probation Service, please click on the link.
The Irish Probation Service is also looking for new probation officers. A Probation Officer in the Probation Service of the Department of Justice and Equality may be assigned to duties in any of the following areas: courts and community, prisons/places of detention, young persons’ probation or other particular assignments that may arise in the Service.
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Keep up to date with the latest developments, stories, and updates on probation from across Europe and beyond. Find relevant news and insights shaping the field today.
From 18-20 November 2025, 15th Plenary Meeting of the Council for Penological Co-operation took part in Council of Europe, Strasbourg. CEP was represented by President Annie Devos, Vice-Presidents Danijela Mrhar Prelic (PC-CP member) and Daniel Danglades and Secretary General Jana Spero Kamenjarin.
The CEP Expert Group on Mental Health met on 19 November 2025 to continue its work on developing a European mental health training curriculum for probation officers. Since last year, the group has been working intensively and meticulously to produce a solid first version of the curriculum.
CEP has released the first cross-European study examining stress, burnout, and morale among probation staff. The report was produced by Professor Charlie Brooker, Professor Karen Tocque, Professor Ioan Durnescu and Liliana Lupsica, whose combined expertise in public health, criminology, and organisational analysis provides an important contribution to our understanding of well-being in probation work.
On 12 and 13 November 2025, CEP Secretary General Jana Špero Kamenjarin participated in the Multilateral Meeting on Women in Prison: Advancing Gender-Sensitive Policies and Practices, at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. The meeting brought together representatives from 40 member states, penitentiary administrations, and international experts, united by a shared commitment to improving rehabilitation, reducing re-offending, and promoting gender equality in places of deprivation of liberty.
This book, Forensic Social Work – Supporting Desistance, has been released by Routledge. It is a practice-oriented resource exploring how forensic social work can support desistance and foster meaningful change in the lives of justice-involved individuals.
The 16th episode of Division_Y features Stephan Leißner, a public probation and parole officer at the Coburg Regional Court in Bavaria, Germany.
