Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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Question 201: To ask the Minister for Justice and Law Reform the number of foreign nationals released from prison here in the years 2007, 2008, 2009 and to date in 2010; the number of release prisoners deported in each of those years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46468/10]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The number of foreign nationals released from prison here in the years 2007, 2008, 2009 and to date are as set out in the table:

In relation to the statistics on the number of released prisoners deported in each of those years, these statistics are not recorded in my Department in a manner as would enable me to readily provide the Deputy with the requested information. The Deputy will appreciate that the extraction and compilation of such information would require my officials in the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service to manually examine and cross reference an inordinate amount of files and I could not justify the deflection of such officials from their day to day work to assemble this information.

The Deputy should note, however, that my Department is in ongoing liaison with the Garda National Immigration Bureau and the Irish Prison Service to ensure that, wherever possible, the cases of non-EEA national persons in detention are processed to completion in advance of their release date so that they are deported at the time of their release rather than being permitted to re-join the general population.