Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 304: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if there is a swift mechanism for transferring prisoners from jails in England to prisons here. [16133/04]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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The Transfer of Sentenced Persons Acts 1995 and 1997 provide a mechanism whereby Irish persons who are imprisoned overseas may apply to serve the remainder of their sentences in Ireland under the terms of the 1983 Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons.

The purpose of the convention is to facilitate the transfer of foreign prisoners to their home countries by providing a procedure which is simple and expeditious. The procedures involved in processing a transfer request between two states require information to be exchanged about the sentenced person. This information includes a copy of the judgment and of the law on which it is based, sentence administration particulars and medical-social reports. The terms of the convention also provide that, for a transfer to take place, a three-way consent is required from the offender, the sentencing state and the state to which the transfer is requested — the administering state. The convention imposes an obligation on states to ensure that the sentenced person's consent to a transfer is given voluntarily and with full knowledge of the legal consequences which the transfer would entail for the person concerned.

Due to the complexity of the documentation required to effect a transfer between other states and Ireland, the process of information exchange can be time-consuming. This invariably lengthens the timeframe involved in completing a transfer. The operation of the convention is kept under review by a Council of Europe committee of experts on the operation of European conventions in the penal field. My Department is represented on this committee which seeks to streamline the operation of the convention.