Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 140: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he will provide details on the proposal to only permit prisoner remission based on participation in rehabilitation; and when this policy will be put in place. [36452/08]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The Programme for Government set out targets for fully resourced and staffed rehabilitation programmes to be available for the entirety of the prison population by 2012 and the linking of remission with rehabilitation.

The Prison Rules provide that prisoners shall be eligible, by good conduct, to earn a remission of sentence not exceeding one quarter. The Rules provide for the granting of further remission where a prisoner has shown further good conduct by engaging in authorised structured activity and the Minister is satisfied that, as a result, the prisoner is less likely to re-offend and will be better able to reintegrate into the community.

Matters being further explored 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 also rulings from the European Court of Human Rights that may be relevant in this context. In addition there are 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 continues to examine how best to implement the commitments in the Programme for Government with particular reference to any possible legislative amendments that might be required.