Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 1 Jul 2003

Vol. 570 No. 2

Written Answers. - Prison Committals.

Seán Power

Ceist:

473 Mr. S. Power asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of prisoners who are currently serving life sentences in Irish prisons; the number of prisoners who served life sentences and were released during the past ten years; the number of years that each prisoner spent in prison; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18270/03]

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Mr. McDowell):

There are a total of 144 persons currently serving life sentences in prisons in this jurisdiction.

There have been a total of 51 life sentence prisoners released on licence over the past ten years. There are also seven life sentence prisoners who were released during this time period but who are now back in prison custody and these persons are not included in the following table which sets out the number of releases for each year since 1994. These figures include 14 subversive prisoners who were released either under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement or during IRA ceasefires.

Year	Number of Releases
1994	3
1995	7
1996	5
1997	3
1998	8
1999	8
2000	6
2001	5
2002	2
2003	4
Total	51

The average length of time spent in custody for the persons referred to above works out at just over 13.5 years. The calculation should not, however, be taken as an accurate figure for what constitutes a life sentence as the figures provided are based only on those offenders who have been released. The calculation cannot take account of those life sentenced prisoners still in custody. These serving prisoners have served periods ranging from weeks to almost 40 years. For example, there are nine life sentence prisoners in custody who received their sentences in or prior to 1983.

It is important to note that a life sentence is indeterminate and there is no guaranteed release date. However, it does not always mean life in prison. Persons released into the community continue to serve their sentences, subject to conditions, while on release. It is generally accepted, both in Ireland and in other jurisdictions, that prisoners serving life sentences who are deemed suitable for release and who have spent a considerable number of years in prison should be paroled at the most appropriate time for re-integration. Each case is dealt with on its merits and the length of time spent in custody can vary substantially.

All prisoners who are serving life sentences are eligible to have their cases reviewed by the Interim Parole Board when they have served seven years in custody. The board, which was established in 2001, makes recommendations to myself on the management of offenders serving long sentences. While it is open to the Interim Parole Board to make any recommendation, the experience of recent years with both the Interim Parole Board and the sentence review group – the predecessor to the Interim Parole Board – is that life sentenced prisoners are normally reviewed on a number of occasions over a number of years before any substantial concessions are recommended. No single digit life sentences will be served in the case of murder, except perhaps in the most extraordinary circumstances which I cannot now envisage, during my time as Minister.