THE ANNUAL REPORT on the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003 has been published – and shows that Ireland received more warrants in 2010 than the previous year.

The report shows that Ireland received 373 European Arrest Warrants in 2010 (up from 326 in 2009) and offences cited included murder, rape, drugs trafficking and assault/robbery.

Ireland issued 51 warrants in 2010 and 26 persons were surrendered to Ireland during the year.

Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence, Mr Alan Shatter TD, has published the annual report for 2010 on the act, which centres on the warrant that provides for a speedy extradition process within the European Union.

In total, 161 persons were surrendered from Ireland to other member states of the European Union in 2010, up from 69 in 2009.

Of those surrendered, 87 were sent to Poland and 34 were sent to the UK.

• There have been 148 people surrendered to the State since the coming into operation of the act.

• The greatest number – 240 – of warrants received in 2010 was for Polish nationals.

• In all, nationals of 15 countries were sought in Ireland during 2010: 244 Polish nationals, 32 Irish nationals, 19 UK nationals, 19 Romanian nationals, 16 Hungarian nationals and 16 Czech Republic nationals were among those sought on foot of European arrest warrants received in 2010.
• The main offences cited were: murder/grievous bodily harm (15), sexual offences including rape and sexual abuse of children (22), drugs offences (30), organised crime/robbery (31) and fraud (97).
• One hundred and five (105) people were arrested in Ireland following European arrest warrants received and endorsed in 2010.
• There were 91 European arrest warrants received from member states completed in 2010.
• There were 10 complaints under Article 40.4.2 of the Constitution in 2010, seven of which were dismissed by the high court. Three were allowed and the subjects were discharged.
• Five cases were appealed to the Supreme Court – one was dismissed, one was withdrawn, and two appeals were allowed. One was ongoing on 31 December 2010.
• In total, 424 people have been surrendered by the State since the act came into operation.
• Fourteen people who were subjects of European arrest warrants in 2010 were surrendered to Ireland during 2010: 11 from the UK, one from Latvia, one from France and one from Poland