Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Question 194: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if his attention has been drawn to the fact that five Irish women (details supplied) serving prison sentences in the United Kingdom may be due for release on remission in late January 2009 with electronic tagging for the remainder of their sentence; if his Department, through the Irish Prison Service, will negotiate with the UK authorities to allow the remainder of these sentences to be served in custody here as an alternative to the arrangement proposed by the UK Probation Service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47272/08]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that the 1983 Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons provides a mechanism for enabling the transfer of sentenced prisoners from the United Kingdom to Ireland. It is provided for in legislation in this State by way of the Transfer of Sentence Persons Acts, 1995 and 1997 and all applications for transfer are subject to a three way consent mechanism; that of the applicant, the sentencing state and the receiving state.

Applications under the Convention have not been received in my Department from the persons concerned and should they now wish to apply they may do so through their prison Governor. However, the Deputy may wish to note that Article 3 of the Convention which sets out the conditions for a transfer, states that all applicants must have a minimum of 6 months of their sentence left to serve at the time of application.