Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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Question 464: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the progress made in regard to the commitment given in the Programme for Government to ensure that prisoner remission will only be earned by participation in rehabilitation programmes. [19289/08]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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Question 465: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the progress made in regard to the commitment given in the Programme for Government to ensure that remission higher than 10% will only be available where rehabilitation programmes are successfully completed and the offence did not involve violence. [19290/08]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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Question 466: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the progress made in regard to the commitment given in the Programme for Government to put in place similar conditions for those on remission as exist for those on bail regarding where they reside, who they associate with, and so on. [19291/08]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 464 to 466, inclusive, together.

The Programme for Government, insofar as it relates to penal matters, contains proposals about revising the system of sentence remission for prisoners. These include lowering the rate of remission available to violent offenders and making its award conditional on various factors. The Programme also includes further proposals on post release supervision in the community for former prisoners.

Traditionally, 25% remission of sentence is granted to the majority of prisoners. The use of remission in this way is tried and tested and has proved to be an important tool in the good management of our prisons. The rate of remission granted can be affected where a sanction involving loss of remission is imposed for specific breaches of prison discipline. Notwithstanding that, even when a sanction of this nature is imposed, the period forfeited may be restored through subsequent good conduct.

The following categories of prisoner are not eligible to earn remission of sentence:

Life sentence prisoners

Persons convicted of debtor offences

Persons convicted of contempt of court

Persons being held on remand warrants

Persons serving a sentence of less than one month.

The Probation Service has a role in relation to offenders on supervised temporary release and other orders including those on post release supervision under the Sex Offender Act 2001, as well as offenders released on part suspended sentences under the Criminal Justice Act 2006. There are also provisions under the Children Act for supervision following a period of detention. The Probation Service works with offenders in custody who request assistance in their reintegration into society. The purpose of intervention by the Probation Service is to address the issues that contribute to reoffending and assist the offender in reintegration.

There are a number of specific legal and constitutional issues raised by the commitments in the Programme for Government. Matters to be explored will include whether changes to remission can be applied retrospectively where such application might have adverse implications on the liberty of the person in question. There are rulings from the European Court of Human Rights that may be relevant in this context. There are also issues as to whether rates of remission can be varied by reference to the nature of the offence, what type of conditions can be imposed on a person granted remission and the implications of linking remission solely to rehabilitation without reference to behaviour while in prison. My Department is examining how best to implement the commitments in the Programme for Government with particular reference to any possible legislative amendments that might be required.