Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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Question 634: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if Irish citizens who are imprisoned overseas are entitled to repatriation when their permanent residence is within Northern Ireland. [23088/11]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The Council of Europe 1983 Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons provides a mechanism whereby prisoners sentenced abroad may be returned to Ireland in order to serve their sentences. The Transfer of Sentenced Persons Acts 1995 and 1997 provides the legislative basis for this Convention in Ireland.

The purpose of the Convention, which is based on humanitarian considerations, is to overcome the difficulties posed for prisoners serving sentences in foreign jurisdictions, such as absence of contact with relatives and differences in languages and culture. Each case is decided on its own merits and in this regard consideration is given as to whether the person concerned would be ordinarily resident in this jurisdiction, were it not for their imprisonment.

All applications for transfer are subject to a three way consent mechanism; that of the applicant, the sentencing state and the receiving state. It should be noted, however, that, even where all of the conditions are satisfied, there is no obligation on a State to comply with a transfer request.