Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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296. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if and when a person (details supplied) in County Louth will be able to apply for repatriation; and the timeframe for same. [38119/14]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons provides a procedural framework for such transfers and seeks to provide a simple and relatively expeditious mechanism whereby the repatriation of sentenced persons may take place.

The Convention sets out six conditions which must be fulfilled if a transfer is to be affected and these conditions are also set out in the Transfer of Sentenced Persons Acts, 1995 and 1997. 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. While the Convention does not require that the requested state give reasons for a refusal to agree to a transfer, the Irish legislation provides that, where practicable and where the interests of justice do not so preclude, a statement specifying the grounds for the refusal will be provided to the applicant or requesting state as appropriate.

I can inform the Deputy that the individual referred to is entitled to apply at any stage for a transfer to serve his sentence in this jurisdiction once he meets these conditions.

The conditions which must be met are that:

1) The offender seeking a transfer is regarded as a national of the State to which the transfer is sought (the administering State),

2) The order or judgement under which the sentenced person was sentenced is final,

3) There is, at the time of the receipt of the request for transfer, at least six months of the sentence remaining to be served,

4) The sentenced person consents to the transfer,

5) The act or omission constituting the offence would also constitute an offence in the administering State, and

6) Both States consent to the transfer.

Under the terms of the Convention, the two States involved in processing a transfer request are required to exchange information about the sentenced person in order to ensure that the conditions above are met. This process is necessary to ensure that all parties (the offender, the sentencing State and the administering State) are fully aware of the legal consequences of a transfer and that an informed decision can be made by all concerned.

Due to the complexity of the documentation required to affect a transfer between other States and Ireland, the process of information exchange can be time consuming therefore it is not possible to provide the Deputy with an indication of how long the process would take should the individual referred to submit an application for same.

Every effort is made to process each application as speedily as possible, once the three-way consent between the two States and the sentenced person is forthcoming.