Dr. Joe Garrihy:

I and colleagues in Maynooth have just finished two pieces of research, one with the IPRT and one with the Irish Council for Prisoners Overseas on, initially, minority, ethnic and foreign national prisoners and, secondly, just foreign national prisoners. This is one of the key findings that came out of it. We spoke to over 100 people of the 560-odd in prison at the moment. Language permeated every aspect of their existence in prison and restrained them in many ways.

I note that the IPS has put on record that it agrees to translate the prison rules and other documents into many languages. It has been said at a conference, though I do not know if this will happen, that it has put out a tender for translation services. In places like the Netherlands, there is a dedicated phone service so a person can pick up a phone and there is a translator at the other end. It is not to say there are no issues with that implementation but there are things in place.

We also have international obligations. European prison rules say people in prison must be furnished with a copy of the prison rules and other documents in a language they understand. The vast majority of people who did not have a high capacity in English that we spoke to never received any prison rules, not to mention in a language they understood. That translates - no pun intended - into repatriation applications, complaints and other aspects that are basic elements of life. The translation issue will get bigger and needs to be addressed.