Ms Ciara Kirrane:

I thank the committee for the opportunity to discuss the barriers and challenges facing returning Irish emigrants. I will focus on the challenges facing a particular cohort of this group, those Irish people returning from prison overseas. Often invisible, these people are one of the most marginalised and vulnerable groups of Irish emigrants. They face significant difficulties in prison overseas, including discrimination, language barriers, isolation and dealing with an unfamiliar legal system. In some countries prison conditions are a major cause of concern and prisoners may, in some cases, experience extreme hardship, with limited access to food, water and medical treatment.

The Irish Council for Prisoners Overseas, ICPO, works to reduce the burden faced by these prisoners and their families. Established by the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference in 1985, we provide information and support to approximately 1,100 Irish citizens in up to 30 different countries. An essential part of our work also involves supporting the families of prisoners overseas, who face significant additional pressures when a loved one is imprisoned abroad. The exact number of Irish citizens returning to Ireland each year, after having served a sentence abroad, is unknown but is estimated to be fewer than 100.

Irish prisoners overseas do not have the same opportunities to prepare for release and to access post-release supports as those serving sentences in Irish prisons. They may be incarcerated in a country that does not provide these services or training courses to foreign national prisoners, or they may be unable to access these services as they are to be deported, leaving them largely unprepared for release and return to Ireland. The Irish Council for Prisoners Overseas seeks to bridge this gap, where possible, by providing advice and information to prisoners in advance of their release and in assisting them to access the services of organisations such as those present today.

Returning prisoners face many similar challenges to other returning migrants. They may, however, be more likely to return to Ireland with little documentation or evidence of previous addresses, due to not having lived in the country for many years or as a result of the crisis nature of their return to Ireland. This makes it particularly difficult to meet the requirements of housing authorities and the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection in seeking to access accommodation and social welfare. Demonstrating that they fulfil the habitual residence condition, HRC, can also be an obstacle for former prisoners, as can accessing a personal public service number, PPSN, for older former prisoners who have not lived in the country for decades. Given the relatively small number of former prisoners seeking to return each year and the challenging circumstances they face, we recommend allowances be made for the relevant forms and assessments to be commenced and-or completed prior to their return to Ireland.

Many former prisoners experience significant mental and physical health problems associated with their imprisonment overseas. Seeing a doctor on their release is critical. Many, however, will not have the resources to access medical care privately on their return. To apply for a medical card, they must first have a PPSN. As medical card eligibility is based on an assessment of means, they must also apply for social welfare before they can then apply for a medical card. This means they cannot get immediate medical treatment on arrival in Ireland. We believe measures should be put in place to allow Irish prisoners overseas apply for a medical card before arrival in Ireland, similar to the arrangements in place for prisoners in Irish prisons who can receive their medical card on release from prison.

Emigrants returning to Ireland as a result of deportation present their own challenges. We have provided support to a small number of immigration detainees in the United States and Australia, both before and following their deportation to Ireland. In some cases the person has not lived in Ireland for many years and has no family or support structures here. There is something very stark about meeting a person in Dublin Airport who has just left a country, a family and all that he or she is familiar with. He or she stands in Dublin Airport with just his or her deportation papers in his or her hand and the clothes he or she arrived in. That person will be returning to a country he or she might have left when he or she was just a few years old. Such returning emigrants require significant additional support in order to access appropriate services upon the return to Ireland.

The focus of this meeting is to look at the challenges and barriers facing returning Irish emigrants. I wish, however, to turn to an issue of concern to Irish prisoners overseas who want to return to Ireland but who cannot. The Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons came into force in 1985 and allows prisoners to be transferred to serve their sentence in their own country. At the heart of the convention is the recognition that being imprisoned in a foreign country places additional burdens on prisoners and their families and that reintegration is best served by being in a person’s home country. Ireland ratified the convention on passing the Transfer of Sentenced Persons Act 1995. Since then we have transferred 154 Irish prisoners into the State. As three times that many prisoners have been transferred out of the State, financial and resource implications should not be a concern.

Two rulings by the Irish Supreme Court, in 2014 and 2016, resulted in all applications for inward transfers being put on hold. These rulings highlighted the problematic nature of the Transfer of Sentenced Persons Act 1995 and the difficulties in dealing with considerably different sentencing regimes in the UK and Ireland. No prisoner has been transferred into the State in two and a half years and some prisoners are waiting almost a decade for a decision on their application. The Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Flanagan, has recently reactivated all inward applications. In the absence of the necessary legislative change, however, a significant proportion of these applications will be refused.

In October, the Minister stated that draft heads of Bill to amend the Transfer of Sentenced Persons Act 1995 is currently being finalised. While this is welcome news, it is a concern that this legislation will struggle to compete for time in the Oireachtas among the many other competing and worthy Bills on the legislative programme. We recommend that legislation be introduced without delay and, once passed into law, that prisoners’ applications be processed in a timely manner. Without this, prisoners and their families will continue to bear the burden of imprisonment overseas and opportunities for providing prisoners with the supports they need to successfully reintegrate into Irish society will be missed. I thank the Chair again for the opportunity to address the committee today and I am happy to take questions.