Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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311. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of persons of Syrian origin or claiming to be of Syrian origin refused leave to land at various points of entry, the reason in each case, by age, by gender by country to which they were returned, in 2015 to date; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45235/15]

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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312. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of persons of Eritrean origin or claiming to be of Eritrean origin refused leave to land at various points of entry, the reason in each case, by age, by gender of the persons refused, by country to which they were returned, in 2015 to date; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45236/15]

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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313. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of persons of Afghan origin or claiming to be of Afghan origin refused leave to land at various points of entry, the reasons in each case, by age, by gender of the persons refused, by the country to which they were returned, in 2015 to date; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45237/15]

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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314. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of persons of Iranian origin or claiming to be of Iranian origin refused leave to land at various points of entry, the reason in each case, by age, by gender of the persons refused, by country to which they were returned; in 2015 to date; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45238/15]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 311 to 314, inclusive, together.

I can inform the Deputy that in the period concerned the number of persons refused leave to land at approved ports of entry to the State from the nationalities referred to by the Deputy was as follows: Afghan 139, Eritrean 11, Iranian 44 and Syrian 59. Information on numbers refused permission to enter the State may be subject to revision over time where individual cases are examined further and the status of some cases may change.

The further breakdown of data requested by the Deputy is not readily available and would require the search and retrieval of individual records that could only be obtained by the disproportionate expenditure of time and resources relative to the information sought.

In general a person may be refused leave to land on one, or more, of the eleven grounds set out in Section 4(3) of the Immigration Act, 2004.

Every person refused leave to land in the State is served with a notice in which the reason, or reasons, for refusing an application for permission to enter the State is set out.

I would advise the Deputy that persons refused leave to land and who are subsequently removed from the State are returned to their point of embarkation, which in most cases is within the EU. I would point out in relation to the countries concerned that no commercial direct flights to Ireland are available from these countries.