Officials from my Department are currently in the process of conducting Christmas reviews and, as such, the figures requested by the Deputy are not yet available. However, I propose to issue a press statement nearer to Christmas on this matter once final figures are available.
The Deputy may be interested in figures for recent years. In 2000 about 250 prisoners were granted varying periods of temporary release at Christmas under the Criminal Justice Act, 1960. This was roughly 8% of the prisoner population. The corresponding numbers released for Christmas in 1999 and 1998 were 303 and 282, respectively.