Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

It happened to Deputy Kathleen Lynch this morning. I must admit this happened to me one Sunday evening when I discovered my passport had expired. Moreover, I have five young children and one Saturday afternoon a couple of years ago, when in a queue for a flight, we discovered my wife's passport had expired. Naturally she missed the flight but was able to travel later on. I thank the officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs, who I have always found to be most kind, courteous and facilitating, both to me at that time and to all members of the public who encounter similar difficulties. There is nothing worse than opening one's passport, seeing one's face and realising the date of eligibility has expired. It has happened to everyone. While it is bad enough to find out one's laser card is out of date, expired passports are a somewhat more difficult matter. I do not know how common this is, although it happens to us all occasionally. I wonder whether there would be some merit in having passport information offices at the main airports. I am not necessarily saying the Department of Foreign Affairs should have a kiosk there, with one of its hard-working staff present on a Saturday and Sunday — I would not go that far — but it may be useful to have an information centre of some sort. Perhaps these are already there and I am not aware of them but in my own case, I was lucky in that I had the telephone number I needed to call. If we had information centres, people could go there to obtain this information and be told what they should do. I was facilitated — I was thankful for it — but it was only because I had certain numbers in my telephone that I was able to do this. I would not have been able to obtain this information at the airport if I did not already have it. Alternatively, the required information could be given to the airport manager in order that if a person realises that he or she does not have a valid passport, the airport manager could tell him or her what must be done.

I tabled a parliamentary question a few years ago about lost passports and, if memory serves, it was very difficult to establish how many had been lost or found. There seemed to be no method to it. There may have been a breakdown in communication between the Departments of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and Foreign Affairs. If we were to introduce a new system under which there was an electronic record of every passport, we would be able to deal more satisfactorily with this issue. In many cases passports are lost or stolen through no fault of the holder, but I am concerned that on occasion, a person abroad who is strapped for cash may willingly sell his or her passport and then report it stolen. I am sure this is a relatively common occurrence, although I do not know whether anyone has been charged with such an offence. I would appreciate if such information was made available at some stage before this legislation is passed.

In court cases, when a person is granted bail, the judge may make a court order under which he or she must surrender his or her passport. Are there any other circumstances under which a person must surrender his or her passport? Who has the power to order this? Is it the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform or the Minister for Foreign Affairs? I would appreciate clarification of this issue.

I have covered most of the issues with this legislation, which I welcome. However, I ask the Minister to consider one other item. My understanding is that third generation Irish people in other countries can obtain an Irish passport, but from the fourth generation onwards they cannot. There are many people of Irish descent in South America, particularly Argentina, where Irish people went in the mid-19th century. There may be a fear that people will try to obtain Irish passports in order to gain access to other EU countries, but we should not be afraid to consider bilateral agreements on Irish passports with the United States or Argentina. We often hear about the need to attract people with certain labour skills to Ireland. If there are people of Irish descent who would like to return to Ireland, our door should be open to them. The Department might consider this. I think I am correct in saying third generation Irish people can obtain passports, while fourth generation descendents cannot. We should consider whether there would be merit in setting up a scheme such as I mentioned, particularly with Argentina. My party leader recently met an Argentinian of Irish descent who raised this issue. Many people, particularly from the Longford-Westmeath area, went to Argentina in the 19th century.

I welcome this legislation. A passport is a valuable document which should not be debased. A correctly administered passport scheme could give us the key to obtaining much information and could also solve many other problems. It would be great if, in a couple of years — in fact, it would probably be longer than that, but sometime in the future — we did not have to worry about who was on the electoral register or similar issues because everybody would have a passport which could also be used as a form of identification. The issue of carrying ID is a sensitive one, but it may become standard to issue passports with an insert which could be used as an ID card while the passport was safely in a drawer at home. I welcome this legislation and thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for the opportunity to speak.

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