John Bruton
Ceist:146 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for Justice the proportion of prisoners who have no educational qualification and who left school without such qualification.
Written Answers. - Prisoners' Educational Qualifications.
As any information about the attainment of prisoners at school does not become available as a matter of course and cannot always be elicited, it is not possible to give a precise response to the Deputy's question.
However, a sampling exercise conducted by education staff in prisons a few yeas ago indicated that less than half of all prisoners receive any formal education beyond primary school and that between one-quarter and one-third of all prisoners have serious reading and writing problems.
A substantial education programme is made available in all prisons and priority is given to prisoners who are most educationally disadvantaged.