Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 244: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if his attention has been drawn to the moves by the British Home Secretary to repatriate Irish citizens who are currently in prison in Britain; if his further attention has been drawn to the number of Irish citizens currently in prison in Britain; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33991/06]

Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 245: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the contingencies he has put in place to prepare for the possible repatriation of Irish citizens held in prisons in other EU States; the number of such prisoners; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33992/06]

Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 246: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he will repatriate non Irish EU citizens currently being held in prisons here to their European countries of nationality; the number of such prisoners; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33993/06]

Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 248: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform his views on whether the Irish Prison Service could cope with the repatriation of Irish citizens currently being held in EU prisons to Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33995/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 244 to 246, inclusive, and 248 together.

The current mechanism by which prisoners can be transferred from one state to another is the 1983 Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons. The legislative basis for the operation of the Convention in Ireland is the Transfer of Sentence Persons Acts, 1995 and 1997.

The Convention requires extensive documentation to be exchanged between both jurisdictions in order to allow an application to be fully considered. A three-way consent is also required to enable any transfer to take place i.e. from the authorities of both jurisdictions and from the person concerned. On receipt of those consents (assuming they are forthcoming), an application must be made to the High Court for a warrant authorising the transfer of the person concerned and his/her continued detention here.

These procedures are required under the Transfer of Sentenced Persons Acts and must be adhered to in processing each application.

Other than the Convention and certain forms of mutual cooperation in the criminal justice area, there is no mechanism whereby a sentenced prisoner can be transferred from another country to Ireland or vice versa. It is open to countries to consider deportation of non national prisoners when they have completed their sentence. However, the deportation of a European Union citizen from one Member State to another may only occur in exceptional circumstances and a sentence of imprisonment on its own is not sufficient to justify deportation. Each case has to be considered on its own particular merits.

The number of prisoners in Irish prisons who are from other parts of the European Union stands at 114. A breakdown by nationality is attached. It is estimated that there are approximately 700 Irish citizens in prisons in other EU member States. The vast majority of these are in Britain.

I am aware that certain Irish citizens who have completed or who are about to complete prison sentences in Britain have been served with deportation orders. There is no legal basis for detaining such persons in this jurisdiction and their deportation has no direct implications for the Irish Prison Service. I am also aware that the Home Secretary made a statement on 10 October, 2006, setting out his policy regarding the deportation of foreign prisoners from the United Kingdom. In that statement he stated that because of the close historical, community, and political ties between the United Kingdom and Ireland, he was considering treating Irish citizens as a special case.

A new proposal to replace the 1983 Convention, known as "The Council Framework Decision on the application of the principle of mutual recognition to judgments in criminal matters imposing custodial sentences or measures involving deprivation of liberty for the purpose of their enforcement in the European Union", has been sponsored by Sweden, Austria and Finland and is currently under discussion at EU level. Ireland, along with several other member states has registered a number of substantial reservations on the text as it currently stands and discussions are continuing on the matter on an ongoing basis.