Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

It is a British system. The proposal was put forward at the end of 2005 as part of Britain's response to international terrorism and the global difficulties that has created for the UK. They provided us with a preliminary outline of the proposed e-borders programme in the first instance. They indicated that a consultation document would be produced and they have done that. We have co-operated with them on this since then.

Deputy Gilmore is correct that this is an issue of considerable interest. The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform is working in close co-operation with the British authorities in respect of this change to the system. From our point of view, we have drawn up a consultation document in respect of our system and we have created a base for examining it as matters progress.

The memorandum, which gives an account of the new system, states that Great Britain is currently developing a new border control system, e-borders, to meet the challenges of the marked increase in international travel with the increased threat of illegal immigration, serious and organised crime and terrorism. The e-border system is being led by the Home Office Border and Immigration Agency in partnership with the police, the UK Visa Service and Revenue and Customs. The system will operate by electronically collecting and analysing passenger information in advance of travel based, as I said, on the US and Spanish systems. The information available from the machine readable zone of a passport will be passed to a border immigration agency operations centre for matching against various immigration, police and other watchlists containing details of persons of interest. There will be a variety of watchlists, including immigration, police, customs, revenue, lost and stolen passports, Interpol and other sources and EU countries. Every area of information will be centralised.

The procedure will result in an alert if a person travelling is on a watchlist. Any action on foot of the alert will be determined by frontline officials. For example, if a wanted rapist is detected, it may be decided to confront and arrest him on landing. However, if the person is suspected of drug smuggling it may be decided to opt for surveillance. There will be a tracking system. The benefits of the system to the British authorities will be its awareness in respect of whether a person of interest has entered or left Britain, the catching of immigration offenders and criminals, especially serious criminals, the collection of information and immigration trend data and the strengthening of border controls. This is the reason for its introduction.

From our point of view, a number of issues arise, namely, the land border issue. The British Government has no plans to introduce controls on the land border. On whether this will impose a restriction on travel between Great Britain and Ireland, the answer is no, it will not. I have read the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform memorandum on this. The popular conception is that the common travel area will be diminished. However, the number of passengers not showing passports or other identification is small in terms of overall numbers. In future people will be required to produce a passport when entering Britain. That will be the ultimate position. The system will not work if people do not do so. People moving into the UK will have to produce a passport. Obviously, these are the anticipated arrangements. This is a ten-year project and the British is in its second year of it. We are fully involved in terms of the details and networks. We have not yet brought to Cabinet a comprehensive memorandum on this matter.

On hearing of this proposal towards the end of 2005 our officials undertook to examine and put together an Irish system. That system is being developed within the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. Deputies may obtain additional information if they table a parliamentary question on the matter to the Minister. The immigration section of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform is approximately two years into its work on this. The proposal relates to the movement of people and security issues. Hardly a week goes by that a person who is being tracked by Interpol and so on enters this country. The position is the same in every country, there is no exception. In a modern world, to avoid tragedies and the hijacking of planes, terrorist activities and so on, this is the way forward internationally.

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