Fr. Gerry McFlynn:

In common with Ms Joyce, I am thankful to the joint committee for the opportunity to address it today. As Ms Joyce already has pointed out, repatriation is extremely important for Irish prisoners who wish to serve their sentence closer to their families. It is universally accepted that maintaining family relationships during a period of imprisonment is vital for the well-being of offenders and their families. The ICPO is aware of approximately 15 Irish prisoners who are serving IPP sentences at present and who are interested in applying for repatriation. A number of these prisoners have close family ties in Ireland and in some cases, the only family ties they have are in Ireland. In the knowledge that they cannot apply for repatriation and may be obliged to remain in the United Kingdom on licence after their release, some prisoners are finding this to be a situation with which it is extremely difficult to cope.

A large part of my work in the London office entails visiting Irish prisoners throughout England and Wales. In this context, I can think of three people in particular that I have met recently, including one only last month. One prisoner, who has elderly parents back in County Mayo, is on a 17-year tariff, of which he has served three years and he has little or no chance of seeing his parents alive again. Another prisoner has all his family contacts back in Ireland, including a partner and children. A third has approximately five or six years of a sentence yet to serve but he already has lost his mother while in prison and his elderly father is seriously ill. The person I met last month in a prison in the south of England told me he now is entertaining suicidal ideas, largely because he believes he is facing a long sentence, will never see his family members back in Ireland again and that there is not much point in going around from prison to prison, as he basically is going nowhere. I was so concerned about the state in which I found him that I asked the chaplain afterwards to make sure that someone kept an eye on him.

I am really worried that some day, I will receive a telephone call from a prison informing me that one of these prisoners on an IPP has taken his own life. Then we all will be in trouble, having been made aware of the situation but having done nothing much to change it. I also am aware of anecdotal evidence to the effect that prisoners from other European countries have been repatriated to countries that also do not have IPP sentences. I have anecdotal evidence for this and it has been confirmed by people in the United Kingdom as well. I thank the joint committee for providing me with this opportunity to make a few introductory remarks on this issue. I hope this issue will be taken seriously and will be dealt with as urgently as possible.