Update: Prisoners Released, 8th July 2015

QUESTION NO:  266

DÁIL QUESTION  addressed to the Minister for Justice and Equality (Deputy Frances Fitzgerald)
by Deputy Bernard J. Durkan
for WRITTEN ANSWER on Tuesday, 7th July, 2015.   

 
  *  To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of prisoners incarcerated for various serious crimes who have been released on completion of their sentence, or otherwise, in the past six years to date; and if she will make a statement on the matter.

                                            – Bernard J. Durkan

 
REPLY.
I am advised by the Irish Prison Service that the information requested by the Deputy prior to March 2012 is not readily available and would require a manual examination of records.   Such an examination would require a disproportionate and inordinate amount of staff time and effort and can not be justified in current circumstances where there are other significant demands on resources.

I can inform the Deputy that the Irish Prison Service introduced a new Prisoner Information Management System (PIMS) on 3 March, 2012 and it is therefore possible to provide the information requested from 3 March, 2012.  

For the purpose of responding to the Deputy, the Irish Prison Service has included in the table below the numbers of prisoners released who had been convicted of offences categorised in Offence Groups one, two and three.  Group One – Homicide Offences includes Murder, Manslaughter and Dangerous Driving causing Death.  Group Two – Sexual Offences includes Rape, Sexual Assault, Indecent Assault, Buggery, Defilement etc.  Group Three includes Attempts/Threats to Murder, Assaults, Harassments and other Related Offences. The Irish Prison Service compiles such data using the same offence groupings as those used by An Garda Síochána, the Central Statistics Office, the Courts Service and the Probation Service.