THE DEPARTMENT OF Foreign Affairs has said that it stands ready to offer consular assistance to a 77-year-old environmental campaigner Gaie Delap, who was returned to jail over Christmas in the UK due to electronic ankle tag issues.

Gaie was sentenced to 20 months in jail in August last year for her involvement in a Just Stop Oil protest that blocked the M25 in November 2022.

She was released early on 18 November on a home detention curfew – but the Electronic Monitoring Service (EMS) was unable to attach an electronic tag to her ankle due to a health condition.

They tried to fit the device onto one of her wrists, but they proved too small. As a result, on 5 December an arrest warrant was put out, and she was recalled to prison, according to Just Stop Oil (JSO).

Gaie Delap, a retired teacher from Montpelier in Bristol with strong Kerry connections, holds an Irish passport.

She is the great niece of the Valentia Island marine biologist and botanist Maude Jane Delap, whose work in collecting and identifying marine species is internationally recognized. Members of the Delap family still live at their home on Valentia Island.

As Gaie holds an Irish passport, the family have said that they may be entitled to seek help from the Government here, Mick Delap told Kerry Today.

In a statement over the weekend, a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs in Ireland said that it “is aware of reports and stands ready to provide consular assistance”.

Her brother Mick Delap has welcomed the news that the Department of Foreign Affairs will offer help.

Mick told Radio Kerry that the family is increasingly concerned about Gaie – due to the procedure involved in setting up phone access, they could not contact Gaie over Christmas and were only able to speak to her late last week.

Gaie is on a number of medications due to medical conditions, and her family has said they are concerned about her receiving medical care.

“She is worried about whether she can get the medical care she needs. Also, she’s very angry because she knows the normal procedure is a tag is fitted,” Mick said.

A statement from family members of Gaie said that she “requires a wrist tag or some equivalent”.

Her relatives added that Gaie is “absolutely no threat to the community” and her recall will “waste” £12,000 (€14,500) in taxpayer money.

“We cannot believe that there is not an electronic monitoring device that can be fitted at a fraction of the cost,” they said.”We want common sense to prevail.”

The family were “simply trying to get the British Government to acknowledge there is a solution,” Mick said.

“ She is an Irish passport holder. She has great affection for Kerry and visits often,” he addd.

The UK’s Ministry of Justice told the BBC last week that if offenders could not be monitored in the community electronically, they would be returned to prison even if it was no fault of their own.

Gaie Delap was arrested on Friday December 21st, and was taken to Eastwood Park Prison in Gloucestershire.

Her case has been raised by the Bristol Central MP Carla Denyer, who wrote to the prisons minister Lord Timpson and the probation service.

“Why is she facing this extra punishment of being locked up, for longer than she was meant to be, and over Christmas?” Denyer wrote in a post on X.

“It’s not because she’s broken her bail conditions, it’s because the private company responsible for fitting electronic tags couldn’t find one the right size for her, and the authorities weren’t willing to consider alternatives like daily check-ins at the police station.”

The Ministry of Justice in the UK said under the home scheme, offenders must be under an electronically monitored curfew for at least nine hours a day.

“Where it is no longer possible to electronically monitor offenders in the community, through no fault of their own, they will be recalled until it is possible for them to be monitored in the community,” the Ministry said.