Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail)
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537. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if she will provide the most up-to-date statistics on recidivism here; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41958/14]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Central Statistics Office (CSO) in partnership with the Irish Prison Service published the Prison Recidivism study in May 2013. The report is a study of recidivism among all prisoners released by the Irish Prison Service on completion of a sentence in 2007 based on re-offending and reconviction data up to the end of 2010. It extends to where the new offence does not necessarily lead to a period of imprisonment and gives a clearer picture of the offending behaviour of ex-prisoners.

In December 2013, the CSO published the Recidivism Study for the 2008 releases cohort of prisoners. This study also included revised figures for the 2007 cohort. It reported on recidivism among 5,489 offenders released by the Irish Prison Service on completion of a sentence in 2008 based on re-offending and reconviction data up to the end of 2011.

The CSO has also published two recidivism reports using data on offenders who had been given probation supervision or community service in 2007 and 2008. The studies consider variations in recidivism as they relate to the type of original sanction imposed, gender and age of offenders, category of offence and subsequent re-offence. All of these reports are available on my Department's website at www. justice.ie.

The next recidivism studies will be published in 2015. The publication of these studies will allow the Irish Prison Service and the Probation Service access to a comprehensive bank of data in relation to the rate of recidivism among ex-prisoners and offenders. This will help to inform future policy on the management of offenders and will facilitate the formulation of new strategies aimed at reducing recidivism.