About 20 low-risk offenders are to take part in a pilot electronic tagging scheme this autumn.
Justice Minister Dermot Ahern, who travels to London tomorrow for meetings with British Cabinet ministers, aims to have the systems in place in the next few months to ease pressure on crowded prisons.
“The participants to be included in the pilot will be carefully selected having regard to the nature of the offence, public safety and overall conduct in prison and will be granted temporary release,” the minister said.
Mr Ahern will hold separate meetings with UK Home Secretary Theresa May, UK Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke and UK immigration minister Damian Green on security, crime and migration issues.
They will also discuss increased co-operation between European police forces and terrorism threats.
The Prison Service sought companies to come forward with GPS systems to monitor the movement of offenders on early release.
Only those believed to pose no risk to the public would be accepted for the scheme.
Mr Ahern plans to discuss the UK experience of electronic tagging with Mr Clarke.
Talks between the minister and the Conservative ministers are the first since the new coalition Government took power in Britain.
“I believe my meeting is important because it provides me with an opportunity to meet with the members of the new Government as quickly as possible so that the very high levels of co-operation between our two countries can be continued and enhanced,” Mr Ahern said.
The minister also said it would be helpful for Ireland and the UK to have a common approach to issues arising at European level as much as possible.
“On a whole range of justice fronts we are dealing with similar problems in our own jurisdictions, and it is useful to have a chance to learn from each other’s approaches,” he said.
Talks with Mrs May will centre on increasing police co-operation across Europe, common concerns over the terrorism threat and ways of tackling head shops.