Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 240: To ask the Minister for Justice and Law Reform the number of adult prisoners per prison who have taken the leaving certificate and the junior certificate annually for the past five years and the cost to the Exchequer per annum. [30786/10]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I wish to inform the Deputy that I have been advised by the Director General of the Irish Prison Service that it has not been possible to compile all of the information regarding prisoner participation in the Leaving Certificate and Junior Certificate in the time available. However, the information is being prepared and will be forwarded to the Deputy as soon as possible.

I can however confirm figures for those registered for this year's Leaving Certificate and Junior Certificate which are set out in the following table.

Education is delivered in the prisons in partnership with the Department of Education and Science, which provided an allocation of 220 whole-time teacher equivalents in the academic year 2009/10. The teaching personnel are employees of the Vocational Education Committees in whose areas the prisons are located.

All other costs, such as the provision of classrooms and materials and the provision of prison officers to provide escorts and security, are borne by the Irish Prison Service. It is not possible to isolate the costs that relate solely to the Leaving Certificate and Junior Certificate.