Noel Treacy (Galway East, Fianna Fail)

There were various early estimations of the cost of upgrading the old system but not for implementing the new state-of-the-art passport system. Again, the Deputies opposite are aware of this fact. The contract price, which is the only relevant estimate, for our automated passport system was €21.8 million in 2002. It will actually cost €27.7 million on completion. These additional moneys are mainly for additional security features in the new passport system necessitated by tightened passport entry requirements in the US following 11 September 2001. Had we failed to introduce these new security features following 11 September while we had the chance, the Deputies opposite would rightly have accused us of negligence.

The additional moneys were also used to introduce the express passport system into Northern Ireland, where there are over 40 post offices now processing Irish passports. This year 26,000 people in Northern Ireland will avail of this new service.

The passport project was, at all times, conducted within Department of Finance guidelines and it avoided the severe problems experienced by other countries in moving to a new passport system. It also allowed Ireland to remain within the US visa waiver scheme.

Deputy Allen has asserted that €5 million will be spent on royalties but the actual figure will be in the region of €360,000 or 52 cents per passport. The sum of 52 cents per passport is paid for the use of patented software technology used in producing the passports. This is a far cry from the €5 million claimed by Deputy Allen, which is nothing short of a political lie. As the Deputy knows ——

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