Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Question 193: To ask the Minister for Justice and Law Reform the number of persons deported from the State in each of the past five years; the dates on which each deportation took place and the number of persons deported on those dates; the flight arrangements in each case in the context of the airline involved; the travel agency, if any, that made arrangements for the flights; in respect of each date on which deportations took place, the cost of the flights involved and the total sum paid in respect of such flights and any commissions relating thereto to the travel agency or agencies that made arrangements to book the flights and the total sum paid to each such agency in each of the past five years [36661/10]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The numbers of people deported, pursuant to the Immigration Act, 1999, as amended, in the period 1st October 2005 to 30th September 2010 are set out in the table below.

Removals are carried out both by way of commercial scheduled flights and by charter. To obtain the detailed information in relation to persons deported by charter and commercial flights and the dates and flight information for each such flight in the last five years requested by the Deputy is not readily available and would require an inordinate amount of time to obtain and an inappropriate expenditure of limited resources.

The travel agent involved in making arrangements for commercial flights is Club Travel. In this regard, the Department avails of the services of Club Travel under the contract negotiated centrally by the Department of Finance. In relation to chartered flights, Air Partner PLC currently hold the contract to supply the aircraft and flight crew for charters.

Removals carried out using commercial flights arranged by Club Travel usually involve transit through other European airports as Ireland does not have direct flights to most of the countries of return. In addition, most flights have to be booked at short notice, near to the date of departure, which involves higher costs than if booked well in advance. However, such costs must be looked at in tandem with the considerable expense arising from the continued presence in the State of persons who have no valid basis for being in the State. Such costs would include accommodation, health, education and social welfare costs as well as detention costs in certain cases. While it is important to keep deportation costs to a minimum, to not remove persons who have no valid basis for being in the State would call into question the integrity of the entire asylum and immigration systems. This would leave this State open to further illegal immigration and even greater expense to taxpayers.

My Department also works in co-operation with other EU Member States, through the EU-wide FRONTEX network, to carry out joint deportation operations to destinations of shared interest. This has the effect of reducing the overall costs to the State of charter flights. Additionally, the Department receives EU funding through the European Return Fund for charter flights.

The detailed information in relation to the cost of commercial flights and all other costs involved in relation to the travel agents in the last five years required by the Deputy is not readily available and would require an inordinate amount of time to obtain and an inappropriate expenditure of limited resources.

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Question 194: To ask the Minister for Justice and Law Reform the number of occasions in each of the past five years in which his Department or the Garda Síochána placed an advertisement seeking tenders from travel agencies or other persons for making necessary arrangements for the deportation from this State of illegal migrants; and to detail the current arrangements in place with regard to any possible such deportations in the coming 12 months. [36662/10]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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My Department has placed advertisements for tenders for the provision of aircraft and flight crew for chartered flights on two occasions in the last five years; in February 2007 and May 2010. The company appointed on both occasions following a detailed examination of the tenders received is a large UK based service provider, Air Partner plc, with considerable experience and expertise in this type of work.

The travel agent involved in making arrangements for commercial flights is Club Travel. In this regard, the Department avails of the services of Club Travel under the contract negotiated centrally by the Department of Finance. For practical reasons of security it would not be appropriate for me to give details of possible future charter flights for deportation purposes.