EU:EU justice ministers have agreed new legislation which will enable foreign prisoners to be transferred to their home country to serve sentences imposed in other EU states.
The agreement seeks to aid the social rehabilitation of offenders, who will be able to move closer to their families. The consent of the home country to the transfer of an offender is not required. Neither is the consent of the prisoner in all cases.
The decision could have major implications for the Irish prison service due to the large number of Irish people who reside in Britain. According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, 965 Irish citizens are currently in prisons in Britain.
Discussions between the British and Irish authorities about the implications of the new legislation have already begun, said a British Home Office spokeswoman.
Britain is facing a severe shortage of prison space and could use the new legislation to try to transfer some EU prisoners back to their home states.
Irish officials said that the legislation would not take effect for at least three or four years and there was a clause which would enable Ireland to only accept newly-committed prisoners to EU jails.
Poland, which had vetoed the proposal last year, agreed yesterday to accept it. However, it won a five-year derogation from the legislation over concerns about the cost of accepting back thousands of prisoners from other EU states.
Together with the standard four-year implementation period, it will not take part until 2016.