Ireland currently has 11 prisoners who have been in jail for longer than 35 years.

Freedom of Information figures released to Newstalk show there are 362 inmates who are serving life-sentences in prisons throughout the country.

Some 352 of them are men and 10 are women.

Four of the men have been in jail for over 40 years and another seven have been behind bars for at least 35 years.

The 14 'lifers' released last year had spent an average of 21-and-a-half years in custody.

Former prison guard John Cuffe said sentences have increased a lot in recent decades.

“When I joined the service in 1978, prisoners from five years onwards were eligible to get out of jail on a life sentence,” he said.

Kathleen Chada, whose two sons 10-year-old Eoghan and five-year-old Ruairi were murdered by their father Sanjeev in County Mayo eight years ago said Ireland needs tougher sentencing laws.

“For me I would say a whole-life order to be honest with you,” she said.

“I don’t believe that somebody who would break the trust of such innocence deserves to get out of prison so I would advocate for a whole-life order.

“That is not available here in Ireland so the next-best thing would be 25 to 30 years.”

She said she wants him to stay behind bars for the rest of his life.

“In the next ten years, my ex-husband who murdered our children will potentially be granted parole based on the current average number of years a prisoner serves,” she said.

“You know, he will still only be in his early to mid-60s at that point - he has a life ahead of him - and to me, that is an insult. It is an insult to my sons.”

Of the 362 life-sentence prisoners in custody, the highest numbers are in both Wheatfield Prison in Dublin and Midlands Prison in Portlaoise.