Ryan v Governor of Limerick Prison

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Court: High Court
• Judgment Date: 15 November 1988
• Docket Number: [1988 No. 310 J.R.]
• Date: 15 November 1988

High Court

[1988 No. 310 J.R.]

Ryan v. Governor of Limerick Prison

Edward Ryan

Applicant

and

Governor of Limerick Prison and the Minister for Justice

Respondents

Case mentioned in this report:—

The State (Murphy) v. Governor of St. Patrick's Institution [1985] I.L.R.M. 141.

Judicial review - Natural justice - Prisoner - Temporary release - Expiry - Whether prisoner entitled to be heard on failure to renew temporary release.

Judicial Review.

The facts are briefly set out in the judgment of Murphy J., post. By letter dated the 27th October, 1988, the first respondent sent to the Central Office of the High Court the applicant's statement of grounds for the judicial review sought, together with his grounding affidavit, and copies of the original warrant for imprisonment and the temporary release order dated the 30th September and expiring on the 7th October, 1988. In his affidavit the applicant deposed that he had been granted a succession of temporary releases in September, culminating in the period from the 30th September to the 7th October, 1988. On the 4th October he had been visited by a welfare officer, who informed him that he would be seeing him twice a week and making monthly reports to the Department of Justice, and that the applicant was to call to the social welfare office to claim unemployment benefit (which he did) and that his wife had received a letter from the same office telling her to return the prisoner's allowance book as the applicant had been released from prison. He stated that after the temporary release was not renewed on the 7th October, 1988, he was informed by Fr. Joe Young of the prison visiting committee that the reason for non-renewal was because the gardai in Limerick had informed the Department of Justice that the crime rate had gone up in Limerick since the applicant's temporary release, and that on the 10th October the first respondent had told the applicant that he believed Fr. Young's information to be correct. The affidavit concluded with a request that the High Court in its decision consider the decision of the Supreme Court in The State (Murphy) v. Governor of St. Patrick's Institution [1985] I.L.R.M. 141. The decision of the High Court on the application for judicial review was given on the 15th November, 1988, the court not deeming it necessary to require the attendance of the applicant for the purposes of delivery of the decision.

Since a temporary release is a privilege or concession in the giving...