Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

That would not normally arise because, as the Senator knows, the principle in regard to remand in Ireland, except in certain cases, is that it is for relatively short periods, people normally apply to the courts and there is a court procedure for dealing with that.

Social welfare staff have special services for people who are in prison and, when they are coming out of prison, in particular to assist people in getting a home because there is always a very strong risk of homelessness as people leave prison. Very often, the only recourse people have when they come out of prison is the local community welfare service, and the social welfare services also provide significant support to the families of people in prison. Social welfare staff throughout the country have always been very responsive and approachable in regard to families and dependants of people in prison. I know some of the Senators here would have personal knowledge of this but I want to reiterate that this has been the practice for a very long period and continues to be the practice.

Nowadays we exchange data from the Irish Prison Service in regard to the PPS numbers of everybody who is sentenced to a term of imprisonment. Before I became Minister, there was a concern about the fact that, in some cases, people were having others collect their social welfare payments while they were in prison, which they were not entitled to do. We have pretty much closed that down.