asked the Minister for Justice the number of prisoners in jails in the State from Northern Ireland, including persons from Northern Ireland who may have taken up residence in this State since 1968; and the total number of such persons imprisoned in the State since then.
Written Answers. - Prisoner Statistics.
499.
A total of 75 persons who have stated that their home addresses are in Northern Ireland are at present detained in the prisons and places of detention in the State. The other information sought by the Deputy is not available. Records of individuals would not necessarily contain information about their origins and, in any case, any attempt to obtain that kind of information would involve an examination of thousands of files. Approximately 54,000 persons were committed to custody since 1968 and the Deputy will appreciate that the examination of their individual files would involve such an amount of staff time that it would not be justified.