Prisoner transfer - Legal debacle must be sorted

IT is alarming that 10 prisoners, who were transferred to Irish jails while serving lengthy sentences in Britain, have had to be released from prison during the last six months because of a serious loophole in the law.

Making a mockery of the prisoner transfer agreement between the two nations, Ireland was left with no other choice but to release them because one prisoner claimed there were significant differences between Irish and UK sentencing policies.

Effectively this meant his detention warrant was invalid. The worrying implication of this legal cock-up is that the freed prisoners were at the serious end of the criminal scale.

They include a convicted drug smuggler and three men found guilty of plotting to buy weapons and explosives for a Real IRA bombing campaign in Britain.

They were released from Europe’s top security prison in Portlaoise.

The fact that criminals of this kind are now at large leaves gardaí with a serious problem. With all applications for prisoner transfers from the UK now on hold, Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald will ask the Supreme Court to clarify the law, raising concerns other inmates may have to be freed.

The crux of the matter is the fundamental difference between UK and Irish law. In Britain, prisoners can be released on licence after serving two-thirds of a sentence.

But that entitlement happens here when inmates serve three-quarters of their term.

This grave legal mess must be cleared up.

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