Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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308. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of persons from County Galway who were convicted and sentenced to imprisonment and the number who were processed at the prison where they were sent and released on the same day or the following day, by prison; by category of crime, by length of sentence given, in 2014 and in 2015 to date; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45222/15]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by the Irish Prison Service that the number of persons sentenced during 2014, who gave Galway as their county of residence was 592.

A breakdown of the figures requested by prison and by category of offence/release reason are included below. It should be noted that 437 or 99.1% of those released were serving a Fines sentence. Each committal on a fine is considered for temporary release by the Irish Prison Service on a case by case basis. In the majority of cases temporary release is granted within a number of hours however, for serial offenders or for certain offences, ie Income tax, those prisoners may remain in custody to serve all or a portion of the sentence.

The Fines (Payment and Recovery) Act 2014 provides that the Court imposing a fine shall take into account a person's financial circumstances. It further provides, inter alia, that where a person fails to pay a fine by the due date, the Court may make an attachment order to earnings as a means of recovering the unpaid fine. As a result of this legislation, it is expected that we will see a reduction in the number of committals to prisons on short sentences.

Alternatives to custody continue to be pursued and legislation has already been passed. This includes the Criminal Justice (Community Service) (Amendment) Act 2011 which requires the sentencing judge to consider the imposition of community service where a custodial sentence of 12 months or less is being considered.

The following tables show the number of persons released. Figures for 2015 are currently unavailable.

Table 1

Table 2