Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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279. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number and proportion of prisoners that have left prison in the past five years that served their full sentence; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51347/13]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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It is not possible to provide the number and proportion of prisoners that have served their full sentence in custody in the past 5 years as this would require the manual examination of records. Such an examination would require a disproportionate and inordinate amount of staff time and effort and could not be justified in current circumstances where there are other significant demands on resources.

Review meetings take place at regular intervals in each of our prisons where the Governor, other members of senior management and representatives from the professional therapeutic services discuss individual cases and then make recommendations to an official from Prison Service Headquarters as to how the sentence management of a case should proceed. This may at times include a recommendation that the person engage in the school, work with the addiction services, etc but may also at times recommend that a prisoner be considered for a transfer from a closed prison, that they be considered for daily temporary release to attend a training programme or at times that they be granted supervised reviewable temporary release.

Prisoners serving short sentences, i.e. under 12 months, may be moved to an open centre shortly after committal. Other longer term prisoners being prepared for the transition back into the community man be considered for moves with about 2 years left in their sentence. Exceptional prisoners who are engaging strongly with the therapeutic services can sometimes be considered for a transfer with up to 4 years left to serve in their sentence. For prisoners serving sentences in excess of 8 years recommendations on their sentence management including transfers to open centres or temporary release are made to me by the Parole Board. It is very important to note that it does not necessarily follow that a prisoner will receive a transfer to an Open Centre or temporary release even if the recommendation is to that effect.

The Deputy will appreciate that in all cases where prisoners have applied for a transfer to an open centre, early or compassionate release, or other concessions, there are safety, security, operational and logistical considerations that must be taken into account by the Irish Prison Service when deciding whether to approve or refuse the application. There is no automatic entitlement to concessions for prisoners at a specific point in their sentence or in light of specific conduct. Each case is examined on its individual merits.