As many as 1,200 Irish prisoners abroad and their families back home were enduring lives of "quiet desperation" and receiving insufficient attention from the authorities here, according to the Irish Commission for Prisoners Overseas (ICPO).
In evidence to the human rights sub-committee of the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee yesterday, commission representatives outlined a catalogue of injustice, delay, discrimination, neglect, misery and trauma which left senators and TDs shocked.
A Catholic Church body, the ICPO, was founded in 1985 as a subsection of the Irish Episcopal Commission for Emigrants. Father Alan Hilliard told the subcommittee it was established because of injustices to Irish prisoners in Britain, but its focus was now worldwide, although its budget was "quite minimal".
He said under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness five years ago, the Government gave commitments to research the needs of prisoners abroad. Money had been set aside for this, but nothing was done.
Fine Gael senator Paul Bradford said the subcommittee would write to the Department of the Taoiseach to express its "concern" about this matter, and invite representatives from departments to discuss the issue.