SEVENTY-THREE people were arrested and surrendered to other states under European arrest warrants last year, according to the annual report on the operation of the system.
The report, released by Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern yesterday, showed 198 requests for surrender were made in 2008. Some 154 were endorsed by the High Court.
The highest proportion of those sought were wanted for assault or robbery (81), followed by fraud (28), drugs offences (25), murder (20) and sex offences (13).
Recent EU accession states accounted for the majority of those sought, with 81 Polish nationals, 26 Lithuanians and 11 Romanians being the subject of European arrest warrants last year.
However, the majority of those actually surrendered to other states went to the UK (32), with 17 to Poland.
Twenty-six Irish nationals were sought for extradition by other states.
The European Arrest Warrant Act came into operation in January 2004, and provides for the arrest here of those sought for crimes committed in other EU member states and their surrender to those states, simplifying extradition procedures between EU member states.
The procedure involves the issuing of a request from the member state to the Minister for Justice.
A special division of the Department of Justice seeks further documentation, if necessary; liaises with the issuing body and then applies to the High Court for the endorsement of the warrant.
If the High Court endorses it (the law requires that the offence alleged corresponds to a similar offence in this jurisdiction), the warrant is endorsed and the Garda arrests and surrenders the person.
Ireland also uses the warrant to pursue people who have committed crimes in Ireland and fled to other EU states.
It issued 40 European arrest warrants in 2008, and received 18 people, with 22 of the cases ongoing. Eleven of the 18 came from the UK.
Fifty-five warrants were ongoing at the end of December last, of which 35 were transmitted between 2004 and 2007. A total of 194 people have been surrendered to other states since the Act came into force, and 87 have been brought back to Ireland.
Last week, Mr Ahern signed a number of amendments to the Act, allowing for the electronic transmission of documents and the taking of identification material from those arrested, such as fingerprints or photographs, to aid in their identification.