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The Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence, Mr Alan Shatter, T.D., has today published the Annual Report for 2011 on the operation of the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003. The European Arrest Warrant provides for a speedy extradition process within the European Union.

On publication of the report Minister Shatter said,

"177 warrants received by Ireland resulted in the surrender of persons in 2011 to other Member States of the European Union.

Ireland received 384 European Arrest Warrants in 2011 (up from 373 in 2010) and offences cited included murder, rape, drugs trafficking and assault/robbery.

Ireland issued 71 warrants in 2011 (up from 51 in 2010) and 36 Irish issued warrants resulted in surrenders to Ireland during the year."

The report is available on the Department's website