Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 14 June 2023
120. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Justice the number of prisoners released on parole in each year since 2013; the average sentence served of these prisoners, including the number released to date this year and the average years served by them; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28799/23]
View answerI wish to advise the Deputy that the Parole Board, as provided for under the Parole Act 2019, was established on 31 July 2021. The Act placed the parole process on a statutory footing and established an independent, statutory Parole Board to decide on parole applications.
The new Parole Board makes its decisions to grant or refuse parole independently from the Minister for Justice and replaces the Interim Parole Board which had been in place since 2001.
Recommendations from the Interim Parole Board were considered by the Minister for Justice who made the final decision whether to approve or refuse Reviewable Temporary Release as set out in the Criminal Justice Act 1960, as amended.
In accordance with Section 28(6)(b) of the 2019 Parole Act, I have been informed by the Parole Board of 9 Parole Orders. Not all prisoners have an imminent release date and as such only 3 of those notified by the Parole Board have been released to date.
I am advised by my officials in the Irish Prison Service that the number of life sentence prisoners released to the community since 2013 to the supervision of the Probation Service are set out in the table below.
|
Year |
Total Life Sentence Prisoners released on Reviewable Temporary Release on foot of recommendations of the Interim Parole Board |
Total Number of prisoners who were released by the Statutory Parole Board in accordance with the Parole Act 2019 |
Average time spent in custody before release in years |
|
2013 |
4 |
0 |
17.5 |
|
2014 |
4 |
0 |
20.0 |
|
2015 |
6 |
0 |
17.5 |
|
2016 |
7 |
0 |
22.0 |
|
2017 |
10 |
0 |
18.0 |
|
2018 |
11 |
0 |
18.0 |
|
2019 |
11 |
0 |
20.0 |
|
2020 |
14 |
0 |
21.5 |
|
2021 |
13 |
0 |
20.0 |
|
2022 |
2* |
2 |
22.5 |
|
2023 |
1 |
19.0 |
* Cases relate to existing recommendations from the Interim Parole Board.
