Ms Ciara Kirrane:

I will try and address each of the questions the Deputy asked. He asked about the numbers of Irish prisoners abroad. The data the Irish Council for Prisoners Overseas has collected of numbers of people in prison abroad are significantly higher than those of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. We have in or around 1,100 or 1,200 prisoners every year, the vast majority of whom are in Britain. There are also small but significant numbers in traditional countries of emigration like the United States and Australia. Australia has seen an increase in numbers in recent years. There will always be some dotted around Europe and throughout the rest of the world, but those numbers are quite small.

The Deputy asked about difficulties in dealing with the legislation of particular countries and our concerns about people being transferred from particular countries. There are two different difficulties. If somebody is in prison in Australia and his or her family is based here, the chances of that family being able to visit the person in prison abroad is limited. The financial burden is immense to undertake a visit overseas. Obviously, for people who are very far away and in prison abroad, we would-----