Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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73. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of persons in total, and by nationality, refused leave to land at approved ports of entry to the State in 2016. [8850/17]

Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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74. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of persons in total and by nationality refused leave to land at approved ports of entry to the State from Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Iran and Eritrea in 2016. [8851/17]

Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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75. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of persons in total, and by port of entry, denied entry at Dublin, Rosslare and Dún Laoghaire ports and Cork, Shannon and Dublin Airports in 2016. [8852/17]

Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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76. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of persons in total, and by nationality, refused leave to land here that were subsequently allowed to enter as asylum seekers in 2016. [8853/17]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 73 to 76, inclusive, together.

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

The total number of persons refused leave to land at approved ports of entry to the State in 2016 was 4,127. Of these, the top five nationalities were as follows, Brazilian – 533; Albanian – 446; South African – 329; United States – 266 and Pakistan – 180. The further breakdown of nationalities 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.

A breakdown by port of entry requested by the Deputy is as follows: Cork Airport – 113; Dublin Airport – 3,370; Dublin Port – 142; Dun Laoghaire – 1; Rosslare Port – 98; Shannon Airport – 56.

The information sought in respect of Iraq, Syria and Eritrea has been provided to the Deputy in response to PQ No. 100 of 31st January, 2017. The corresponding numbers for Yemen, Libya and Iran were 7, 7 and 46 respectively.

The number of persons refused leave to land here who were subsequently allowed to enter as asylum seekers in 2016 totalled 396. I do not propose to disaggregate these figures further as I have a legal obligation to protect the identify of all asylum seekers in accordance with the International Protection Act 2015.

It should be noted that 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.