Mr. Niall MacCarthy:

I thank Senator Craughwell for his questions and kind words about Cork Airport. His question related to the common travel area not being set down in legislation, and whether we have doubts or concerns on the immigration process post Brexit. The common travel area predates our entry into the EU and has been respected since the foundation of the State. In more recent years, people have been required to carry a passport for aviation, which happened irrespective of the common travel area. That requirement continues. The day after the referendum in the UK, we realised Brexit was going to be significant for Ireland and our business, so we mobilised a part-time team which deconstructed all aspects of aviation, such as the journey, freight and security. We began with pilots' licences, the regulation of aircraft and security processes. One by one, we contacted the Department of Justice and Equality, the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service, INIS, the Garda National Immigration Bureau, GNIB, the UK Airport Operators Association, and the British Embassy, and started to tick through all the concerns we had. We are absolutely confident that the common travel area will be respected. We have engaged with the Department of Justice and Equality, INIS and the GNIB as recently as today. The process for British passport holders coming into Ireland will be unchanged and will respect the common travel area. Non-EU citizens such as Americans or Asians are subjected to some questions when travelling here. They go into a non-EU queue and are asked the duration of their stay and where they are staying to establish whether they have the economic capability to remain in the country for the relevant period. British passport holders will not be subject to such questions. There will be a sign change and passports will be checked for validity and scanned, as they were before. We are confident of that.

The second part of the Senator's question related to refugees, asylum seekers and illegal immigration. These are people whose status the Garda or INIS are not satisfied with. They will sometimes present themselves without proper documentation or declare themselves to be refugees. All airports have passport checks before one leaves, where one is obliged to show a valid travel document and passport. These can sometimes be bogus passports, but we are not expecting a significant increase in those through the airports. It may be an issue in ports, but I can only answer for airports. We are printing leaflets in which we tell passengers not to panic because people are questioning whether they should books flights to the UK. We are concerned about the impact people panicking would have on businesses, aviation and tourism. The leaflet is headed "Do not panic in the event of a no-deal Brexit" and has six points. We also have frequently asked questions, FAQs on our website. To answer the Senator's question, we are not worried about the status of the common travel area.