Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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Question 476: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of crimes that have been committed by inmates of each prison, for which they have received convictions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27318/07]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I am providing information to the Deputy on prisoners currently serving prison sentences. In that regard, I am informed by the Director General of the Irish Prison Service that on the 2 November, 2007, there were 3,342 prisoners in custody, of whom 2,641 were serving a prison sentence for one or more offences. The balance were either on remand or in custody on immigration related issues.

A breakdown of the offences for which they are serving sentences is set out in the following table. In cases where a person is serving multiple sentences, they are categorised on the basis of their most serious offence.

The compilation of statistics relating to all offences for which prisoners have been convicted in the context of their current sentences or previous ones, if applicable, on an individual prisoner basis, would require a disproportionate and inordinate amount of staff time and effort to prepare and could not be justified in current circumstances where there are other significant demands on resources.