Alan Farrell (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is an eye-watering description of prisons. We have seen scenes like that in the movies but I do not necessarily think the general public is aware how bad it is in certain places. My last question which is on costs is possibly the reason a decision has not been made by the Irish Government to repatriate certain prisoners. If there are certain individuals in the UK, in particular, for whom it has been determined unsafe for them to be released and we are potentially talking about repatriating them to a country that does not have similar laws - admittedly it has been rescinded in the UK , but as Fr. McFlynn said there are 5,500 still imprisoned for public protection tariffs - what is the position? If, for argument sake, an individual who is currently serving an IPP sentence is repatriated to Ireland, how long would that person serve, or who decides; would it be the parole board? What I am trying to ascertain is how the British authorities would determine how long to recommend to the Irish Prison Service or the Irish courts system if the individual is being repatriated and, dare I say it, who would bear the cost? If a person commits a crime in a foreign jurisdiction obviously that jurisdiction would bear the cost of the imprisonment. I have an anecdotal figure which I will not mention, as I am not sure if it is correct, but the cost of detaining a person in prison on an annual basis is not a small amount. I understand we are talking about a small number of people and their human rights. I fully understand and recognise the importance of repatriating a person to bring him or her closer to his or her family for the purposes of rehabilitation. However, I would have a concern that we might be opening a door. I accept fully what Fr. McFlynn said about the number being very small but I would still have a concern.