Mr. Liam Herrick:

We very much agree with the analysis of FLAC that the power, as we understand it, requires a reasonable suspicion that a person is breaking the law before he or she can be approached and powers of inspection exercised. So far, we know the totality of people on a particular flight were being asked for their personal public service numbers or other details. To us that would not seem to be compatible with such reasonable suspicion. From the information available through the freedom of information process at this point, as mentioned by Ms Barry, it appears a decision was made by senior officials within the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection that specific flights to specific destinations would be singled out. We do not know what was the basis for that selection but it certainly gives rise to serious concern that individuals of a certain nationality were being targeted. That is certainly a concern.

Data protection issues also arise around how information about travel was received or processed. We have had reports of individuals who claimed they were cut off where they never even travelled, merely booked travel, which gives rise to other concerns. Much more needs to come out in this regard but the information available gives us cause for concern around the potential profiling of particular nationalities.