Dr. Gavin Barrett:

I see. The Deputy would obviously be more familiar with that than I would. I agree 100% with what he said about the need for equality and respect right across the European Union. One of the advantages of the European arrest warrant is that it introduces more equality.

There are cost implications in the sense that if an arrest warrant is put through the courts here an individual might be fully entitled to free legal aid - why would he or she not be so entitled? - and the Garda would be obliged to locate that individual in the first instance. There are all sorts of costs involved. I am not sure who pays for flights but I will take the Deputy's word for it that in the cases to which he referred, it was the Polish Government. I suspect that rather a lot of man hours, court hours, police hours and lawyer hours are spent on this matter in Ireland. It would be better for all concerned if, perhaps, there were not quite as many requests in respect of really trivial offences emanating from Poland in particular.