Kevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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271. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if situations have arisen here whereby a person or persons that may have been suspected or charged with having links to a specific organisation would have used human rights laws preventing them from being deported (details supplied). [30846/17]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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The statutory criteria which must be considered in relation to a decision to make a deportation order under section 3(6) of the Immigration Act 1999 include national security and public policy, the character and conduct of the person concerned and the common good. In determining whether to make a deportation order, in addition to the factors set out in Section 3 (6) of the Immigration Act 1999, I must also consider all relevant constitutional and international human rights arising, including those enshrined in the Refugee Convention, the UN Convention Against Torture and the European Charter of Human Rights. The question of not returning a person to a place where certain fundamental rights would be breached (or non refoulement as it is commonly referred to) is fully considered in every case when deciding whether or not to make a deportation order. This involves consideration of whether returning the person would result in the life or freedom of that person being threatened on account of his or her race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, or whether the person would be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

The process leading to deportation is extensive with many avenues of appeal, including judicial review in the High Court, open to persons subject to deportation orders. Where persons have been identified as a threat to national security by An Garda Síochána it remains open to me as Minister to make deportation orders against such persons, and my predecessor as Minister has done so in the past.