Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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427. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if he will detail how a request submitted for an Irish national, currently in a prison within the EU, is repatriated to an Irish prison under the new Criminal Justice (Mutual Recognition of Custodial Sentences) Act 2023; if advice in this regard has been circulated to relevant advocacy groups to assist families in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19516/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Criminal Justice (Mutual Recognition of Custodial Sentences) Act 2023 was signed into law on 1 March 2023. The Act is expected to commence in the coming weeks and work is ongoing to prepare information material for people in the custody of the Irish Prison Service.

The purpose of the Act is to implement Framework Decision 2008/909/JHA on the mutual recognition of custodial sentences, which provides for the transfer of sentenced persons between EU Member States. It also amends and updates the existing legislation underpinning transfers for non-EU states, including the UK.

Prisoner transfer applications are complex, requiring legal assessment on a case-by-case basis, and such requests are decided upon following the preparation of reports from several agencies.

The agreement of the state imposing the sentence is always required to progress a transfer and the procedures by which this may be obtained vary state-by-state. A person seeking a transfer to Ireland should, in the first instance, engage with the relevant authorities in the sentencing state.