Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 404: To ask the Minister for Justice and Law Reform if he will clarify the grounds a prisoner on conditional release may be recalled to prison, on whose authority such a recall order is made; the administrative procedure for dealing with recalled prisoners; if a prisoner is recalled to prison, is the time spent on conditional release deducted from their sentence; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31435/10]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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Section 6 of the Criminal Justice Act 1960 states that a person shall be deemed unlawfully at large if a condition to which his release was made subject has been broken. Section 7 of the Act then allows for a member of the Gardaí to arrest without warrant such a person and return them back to prison custody. Persons returned to custody in such circumstances then have their cases considered by the appropriate Prison Governor who makes the determination whether or not the temporary release should be revoked. If the temporary release is revoked the person remains in custody.

When prisoners are granted temporary release it is for a set and determinate period; in most cases this would be for one week. A fresh decision to grant temporary release is required each time the person returns back to the prison. In cases where it has been brought to my attention that there are serious concerns relating to a person's behaviour the decision is then made not to grant a further period of temporary release. The power to make these decisions is vested in the Minister for Justice and Law Reform and are generally made on my behalf by senior officials in Irish Prison Service Headquarters.

The sentence imposed on a person continues to run while they are compliant with the terms of their temporary release from custody. However, a person who goes unlawfully at large or otherwise breaches the terms and conditions of their temporary release will still have to serve out the full balance of the remaining sentence once they are returned to custody.