Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

The issue I am raising today is unusual. The extradition of two wanted men in the Czech Republic is being sought from this country. They are apparently fugitives from justice. They are wanted for crimes such as murder, kidnapping and torture in the Czech Republic. They are allegedly part of the largest criminal gang in that country and the Czech Government has contacted the Irish Government to seek their return. So far, we have been unable to grant their extradition or the request under the European arrest warrant. The two fugitives are apparently moving around in our country without hindrance. The problem seems to arise from the fact that both countries implemented the European arrest warrant at different times and in different ways. We implemented it in 2003 and made it retrospective and prospective, while the Czech authorities implemented it in 2004 and did not make it retrospective.

It appears that there may be a difficulty in executing the arrest warrant because of the terms under which it was implemented, while the pre-European arrest warrant extradition legislation no longer applies. All member states of the European Union implemented the arrest warrant legislation in different fashions and at different times. We implemented it here before the Czech Republic became a member of the EU. The new EU member states from eastern Europe would take a different approach to the situation because extradition would not have been applied in the old Soviet bloc. The end result is that an anomaly exists.

Ireland has been the subject of requests for extradition or repatriation of these Czech nationals. We seem to have been unable to carry out those requests and I wonder what the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform thinks about the situation. How does he intend to expedite the request? He should have a meeting with the Council of Ministers to see what other anomalies exist, because there is not much sense in introducing so-called standardised forms of legislation unless they function. We are wasting time in the Oireachtas going through the motions if the legislation cannot function between the different countries.

We have enough murder and mayhem on the streets of our country. If we have it on good authority from the Czech police that there are two dangerous fugitives from the law of the Czech Republic, the Minister needs to examine the legislation to figure out whether we can deport undesirable non-nationals from this country. How do we close the European arrest warrant loophole? How do we deal with specific requests that have come to us about individuals who are fugitives from justice and seem to be able to operate here without hindrance?

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