Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Question 68: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the role of a company (details supplied) in deportation flights from Ireland; the way this company is operating here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31225/11]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Frontex http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_language(European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union) is the European Union agency for external border security. It is responsible for coordinating the activities of the national border guards in ensuring the security of the EU's borders with non-member states. Frontex is headquartered in Warsaw, Poland.

Frontex was established by Council Regulation (EC) 2007/2004. The agency started to be operational on 3 October 2005 and was the first EU agency to be based in one of the new EU states.

Frontex's mission is to help EU Member States implement EU rules on external border controls and to coordinate operational cooperation between Member States in the field of external border management. While it remains the task of each member state to control its own borders, the Agency is vested with the function to ensure that they all do so with the same high standard of efficiency.

Frontex also assists EU Member States and Schengen-associated countries in the co-ordination of return flights. In the event that somebody is determined by a Member State government to be staying in that country illegally, they may be asked to leave. Most do so voluntarily, but those who do not may be returned to their country of origin by the Member State concerned. In these cases, it is Frontex's role to coordinate repatriation activities between those countries to ensure that humanitarian standards are met and to maximise efficiency and cost-effectiveness in joint return operations. Together with the experts from the Member States and refugee and asylum organisations, Frontex is also involved in identifying best practices in this area.

The Deputy will appreciate that in light of the above clarification, Frontex is not a company and its operations in Ireland are subject to Council Regulation (EC) 2007/2004.