Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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Question 70: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if his attention has been drawn to the concerns expressed by a judge at the decision to allow the temporary release of a serial Limerick prisoner, two days into a ten-month sentence due to overcrowding at Limerick Prison; if he will confirm the statement of an assistant governor of Limerick Prison that the prisoner in question was serving a two-year sentence by instalment; if it is his policy that prisoners may serve sentences by instalment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19589/10]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I am aware of the case referred to by the Deputy which involves a prisoner serving a prison sentence dating from 20 April, 2007 and whose remission date stands at 10 July, 2010. He has received a variety of concurrent or overlapping sentences for relatively minor offences at various stages throughout his sentence. He is not therefore serving a 10 month sentence as the question suggests.

As the Deputy is aware, there is no provision to serve prison sentences "by instalment". What the Assistant Governor of Limerick Prison was referring to are the not uncommon instances whereby prisoners are committed to custody, released for a time period,for example, on bail, and then returned to custody to complete the sentence imposed. In almost all such cases the prisoners involved are given credit for time already served.

The Irish Prison Service has judiciously used temporary release a means of reducing numbers in times of serious overcrowding in Limerick Prison. The Government has committed and will continue to commit significant resources into improving and adding to our overall prison cell capacity and in the that context the introduction of 200 new spaces in Wheatfield Prison this year will help to further alleviate the problem of overcrowding which is not unique to Ireland.