Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I know there is a different rule for the common travel area. People need photo ID, which may be work ID or some other form of ID and does not have to be a passport. The passport is also permission to enter a country, depending on where someone is from. If someone is an EU citizen or comes from certain other states, he or she is entitled to be here. The rules are there. People from certain other countries need visas or other permits to get into the country. Of course, the passport is proof of identity, but it is much more than that. It represents an entitlement to enter the jurisdiction of this State. Airlines are required to make sure that any passenger getting on their planes have the right status to come into the country.

On the e-gate system, if passengers walk up to an e-gate, they are not checked. If I am right, whether they have an antigen test or PCR test, they will not be checked. Are people being diverted? I know they can be diverted across if their e-gate does not work. I heard that. However, if people go to an e-gate and it opens because they have done all the right things, look the right way and have taken off their mask, glasses and everything else, is anyone going to check that they have had a test? Can somebody, after watching this committee meeting, decide that, if they turn up and go through the e-gates with a working passport, he or she will not be checked for an antigen test or PCR test? They may hope the airline will not check. We are relying on the airlines a lot. That is fine once we know the airlines are doing what they are supposed to but the checks - and only 10% of passengers are being checked - are finding people who are making it through the system. I accept that this is new and that there are many different versions of antigen tests and PCR tests but it sounds to me like a person who happens to have got on a plane without a test can turn up at an e-gate and be unlikely to be caught. Is that fair?