Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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69. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the consideration that has been given to the provision a transition centre for exonerated persons; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51618/17]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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I can inform the Deputy that for the purpose of reply, I take it that the question refers to persons who were held on remand within the prison system and but who subsequently released arising from a non-conviction following a Court trial.  This being so, I can inform the Deputy that there is no statutory basis to provide specific services to such persons beyond that which would be provided to other prisoners, whether on remand, on bail, or upon release.

Part 6 of the Prison Rules 2007 provides for the services which the Irish Prison Service must endeavour to provide for prisoners not serving a sentence. These include accommodation, structured activities and healthcare requirements while in custody. There are also separate provisions under the Prison Rules for unconvicted prisoners in relation to telephone calls, letters and visits.

Because of the unpredictable nature of the time in custody it is not possible to provide pre-release programmes or reintegration programmes to remand prisoners who do not receive a conviction. Remand prisoners can be released by the court at any time. They can also receive bail or have the warrant holding them quashed for any number of reasons. In additional, prisoners can be brought to court and have their case deferred to a later date, resulting in the prisoner being remanded again. This process can occur on multiple occasions in relation to the same case.

For these reasons it is impossible to plan when a remand prisoner may be released, accordingly it is not possible to provide a structured release programme to this cohort of prisoners.

My Department has no plans to consider providing a transition centre for remand prisoners once they are released.