Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Question 34: To ask the Minister for Justice and Law Reform if he will amend the rules governing remission of prison sentences so that those convicted of serious sexual offences will only qualify if they have satisfactorily completed a course of treatment during their sentence; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35371/10]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The granting of sentence remission is a feature of many prison systems worldwide and has been a feature of the Irish criminal justice system since the foundation of the State. Indeed our Courts are aware of the statutory entitlement to remission when passing sentence. Section 35 of the Prisons Act, 2007 (No. 10 of 2007) provides that the Minister may make rules for the regulation and good government of prisons and such rules may provide for the remission of a portion of a prisoner's sentence. New Prison Rules (S.I. No. 252 of 2007) ,effective from 1st October, 2007, specifically deal with the matter of remission at Rule 59.Prisoners sentenced to imprisonment (other than the categories listed below) are entitled by law to remission of one quarter of sentence provided they are of good behaviour during their time in custody.

There are a number of categories of prisoner who are excluded from standard remission of sentence under the Prison Rules and these are as follows: Life sentence prisoners; Persons convicted of debtor offences; Persons convicted of contempt of court; Persons being held on remand warrants; and Persons serving a sentence of less than one month.

I should also add that European Court of Human Rights has held that a loss of remission requires a specific finding of a breach of prison discipline. In practice therefore, a prisoner will normally get 25% remission unless they have breached prison discipline and a sanction of loss of remission has been imposed.

As stated already remission and conditional release are a common feature of prison systems throughout Western Europe. Remission rates can vary between 25% and 50%. For example, in the Netherlands prisoners are entitled to automatic remission of one third of their sentence. The UK also used to provide automatic remission of one third but their system was changed in 2006 to a system of conditional release after 50% of the sentence was served. There would be constitutional issues in trying to introduce any new system which would reduce the amount of remission for prisoners who have already been sentenced.

In relation to interventions specifically aimed at the cohort of prisoner serving sentences relating to sexual offences I would like to tell the Deputy about a new programme of group interventions for such offenders which was introduced in the Irish Prison Service in January 2009. The programme, "Building Better Lives", allows more responsive and flexible delivery to a greater number of offenders than heretofore. The new treatment programme will ensure that all sex offenders serving sentences of one year or more will have access to appropriate treatment. This new programme replaced the Sex Offender Programme which ran from 1994 to 2008. There is a comprehensive range of services available to sex offenders and any willing participant can be facilitated within the range of therapeutic interventions. These comprise notably one-to-one interventions, group interventions, community-based services and interventions available to prisoners generally. Therapeutic interventions with sex offenders are delivered primarily through the Psychology Service of the Irish Prison Service.

Research indicates that there is no evidence to support the idea that mandatory attendance, or indeed attendance achieved under threat of punishment, at rehabilitation programmes was of any value in reducing re-offending. Incentives to encourage voluntary participation offer a greater chance of success. On the contrary all indications are that rehabilitation does not work unless the offender is motivated to engage with the process. The successful completion of any group treatment course depends critically on the full and willing participation of self-motivated individuals. Otherwise, the elements of the programme concerned with challenging the offender to take responsibility for his offending behaviour will not succeed. I will continue to keep under review what measures (including remission) are appropriate to maintain effective participation rates in therapeutic programmes by sex offenders.