Paul Nicholas Gogarty
Ceist:76 Mr. Gogarty asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of non-nationals incarcerated; the comparison to the previous year's figures; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23436/03]
Written Answers. - Prison Committals.
The number of persons committed to prison in 2002 who indicated at time of committal that they were non-nationals was 2,165. This represents an increase of 432 compared with the equivalent statistic of 1,733 persons in 2001.
A profile of non-national prisoners is included in the annual report of the Irish Prison Service for 2002 which is in the Oireachtas Library. The report indicates that non-nationals committed to prison in 2002 were from a total of 105 countries. Of them, 1,262, or 58%, were recorded as being from European countries, of whom 279 were recorded as being EU nationals.