Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

I am joking. Would that we had Ministers who were as proactive as Deputy Shatter describes, who listened to international news and were capable of making telephone calls to officials. To find an official in Dublin Airport would be a big achievement.

It is necessary to spell out the basis on which passports could be removed. I understood that we had the right to remove passports in cases of criminal proceedings such that the passport of someone released on bail had to be surrendered. Maybe the criminal justice legislation covers that. What does the Minister of State regard as grounds for removing a passport from someone who is not in that category? I do not want the Minister of State to recite a litany of criminal offences in respect of which a passport could be removed. What lists are there of potential embarrassment abroad and under what circumstances could the Minister remove a passport, apart from the criminal offences of which we are conscious?

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