Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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167. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of prisoners on parole of short, medium or long duration in each of the past six years to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30003/18]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy is aware, periods of temporary release granted can vary greatly from a few hours following a family bereavement to, for example, a requirement to report to the prison every 12 months in the case of a life sentence prisoner who has been released into the community a considerable time ago.

It is not possible to provide figures to the Deputy for all forms of temporary release as this would require the manual examination of a substantial number of records. Such an examination would require a disproportionate and inordinate amount of staff time and effort and could not be justified in current circumstances where there are other significant demands on resources.

I can advise the Deputy that on 29 June 2018, the number of prisoners, including life sentence prisoners released into the community under the supervision of the Probation Service, was 298, which represented approximately 7% of the overall prison population.