Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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462. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of prisoners waiting to be assessed for transfer under the Transfer of Sentenced Persons Act; the time frame for the assessment to be initiated; the number of prisoners transferred to prisons in this State in the past year; if new legislation or amendments to existing legislation are required; and if so the time frame for this to be initiated. [46501/15]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Transfer of Sentenced Persons Acts, 1995 and 1997 provide a mechanism whereby non-nationals serving sentences in Ireland may apply to serve the remainder of their sentences in their own countries and, similarly, Irish persons who are imprisoned overseas may apply to serve the remainder of their sentences in Ireland. Such transfers may be facilitated where the other country has ratified the Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons. Transfer requests under the Convention are normally made by a prisoner through the governor of the prison in which he or she is detained. I decide on all such requests following the collation of a number of reports from various agencies setting out the consequences of such a transfer.

On receipt of a completed application from a prisoner, an assessment is initiated immediately by my officials in the Irish Prison Service. The collation of the documents, as required under the provisions of the Transfer of Sentenced Persons Act between the sentencing state and the receiving state can be a very lengthy and complex process. Therefore it is not possible to determine how long any such assessment will take to be completed.

I can advise the Deputy that as at 1 January 2016, there were 52 active transfer applications which are at various stages of the assessment process.

Two prisoners were transferred into this jurisdiction in 2015. The sentencing states in these cases were Estonia and Spain.

The Deputy should be aware, that the Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons does not confer an automatic right for any prisoner to be transferred nor does it confer an obligation on any State to comply with a transfer request. In addition the consent of the three parties in the process is required prior to any transfer, i.e. the sentencing state, the receiving state and the sentenced person.

Legislation to amend the Transfer of Sentenced Persons Acts is being proposed. Until now persons serving sentences here or in another country could not be transferred to another state without their express consent. The new legislation will allow the State to transfer prisoners serving sentences imposed by Irish courts, in order to repatriate them to their state of nationality, without their consent. It will also allow persons who are Irish citizens to have a sentence imposed on them here if a prison sentence was imposed by a court in another EU state. The provision will only apply in regard to serious offences which carry a jail term of more than 3 years and will not apply to sentences imposed before December 2011.