Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 374: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the average number of prisoners held in State prisons in the years 2001 to date in 2008; and his estimate of recidivism or of repeat offenders within the total prison population in each of those years. [39760/08]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The statistics as requested by the Deputy are set out in the following table.

The Government's significant investment in modernising our prisons over the lifetime of this Government has resulted in the provision of some 1300 new prison spaces. This investment, combined with the additional prison spaces coming on stream over the next number of months at Castlerea, Portlaoise and Wheatfield Prisons will add further to our prison capacity to meet current demands. The Thornton Hall Complex and the proposed new Munster prison will further enhance the quality of our prison accommodation, allow for increased single cell usage and offer significant improvements in the areas of work training, education, medical services and in-cell sanitation.

I wish to advise the Deputy that the Irish Prison Service recently facilitated a major study of prisoner re-offending by the UCD Institute of Criminology. The study found that 27.4% of released prisoners were serving a new prison sentence within one year. This rose to 39.2% after two years, 45.1% after three years, and 49.2% after four years.

Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 375: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of offences resulting in imprisonment (details supplied) for each year for the past five years; and the average time spent in prison under each heading over the same timeframe. [39761/08]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The following information is taken from the Annual Reports of the Irish Prison Service for the years 2003 to 2006 and from available information which will be included in the 2007 report. While the statistics are not categorised in the exact format requested by the Deputy, it is assumed that the information given will be useful.

I am advised that it is not possible to provide information in relation to the average amount of time spent in custody under each category as its collation would require a disproportionate and inordinate amount of staff time and effort which cannot be justified in current circumstances where there are other significant demands on resources.