Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)
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583. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the reasons some 3,003 persons were refused entry into the country; the nationalities of those refused entry; if she will provide a breakdown of the number refused entry at each port of entry; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22232/15]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The figure provided to the Deputy of 3,003 persons refused entry into the country in reply to Dáil Question No. 476 of 26 May 2015 is for a 13 month period from April 2014 to April 2015 inclusive.

In the time available it has not been possible to obtain all the information requested by the Deputy from the Garda authorities. I will write to the Deputy in due course on the matters raised. I should point out that while every effort will be made to provide the information sought, it is possible that some of the information will not be available in the form requested by Deputy and/or could only be obtained by the disproportionate expenditure of time and resources relative to the information sought.

For the Deputy's information, I would draw his attention to the fact that since 2011, my Department issues a press statement in early January each year which is available on the Departments website www.justice.ie. The Statement gives a review of the main developments in the previous calendar year in the immigration and asylum areas and provides key figures on activity during the year concerned including numbers of all removals from the State broken down further to show total numbers of those refused permission to enter the State.