ANY loophole in the Housing Law that would let criminals ‘with no connection to the Island’ earn their quallies while in jail will be closed, the Housing Minister said today.

Senator Terry Le Main said that he would be seeking advice at the earliest opportunity to make sure that convicts such as Belfast murderer Paul Greenan could not be fully qualified on release.

He spoke out after the revelation in yesterday’s JEP that there seemed to be nothing in the law to stop lifers and others using their time inside towards the current 14-year qualification period.

The director of housing control, Peter Connew, said that he could not see anything in the law which said that prisoners were not ‘ordinarily resident’ in the Island, the test for whether that time counted towards quallies.

Senator Le Main said that he would speak to the legal advisers as soon as the Attorney General, William Bailhache, who has suffered a minor heart attack, was well enough to return to his office.