Catherine Murphy
Question:620. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Justice the way in which persons can access prison and prisoner records from 1922 to 1950 in the context of genealogy research. [22697/22]
View answerTuesday, 10 May 2022
Questions (620)
Written answers
I can inform the Deputy that the Irish Prison Service are responsible for processing of information requests pertaining to prison and prisoner records.
Section 7 of the Freedom of Information Act 2014 (Section 37(8)) Regulations 2016 applies to the making of a Freedom of Information request pertaining to a case in which the individual to whom the record concerned relates is deceased.
Under this legislation there is no automatic right of access to records of a deceased person by their partner, spouse, next of kin or other persons, but rather a public body may decide to release the records to these persons in appropriate cases.
The burden of proof is on the requester to demonstrate if their case is appropriate. Requests for access to prison records may be submitted by writing to the Information Access Officer of the Irish Prison Service, e-mail: datarequest@irishprisons.ie.
As much detail as possible about the family members in question should be provided in order to identify records within scope of the request.
Most, if not all, of the prisoner records dating back to the period in question are held by the National Archives at this stage. Information in respect of accessing these records is available from the National Archives.