Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)

The maximum penalty for conviction on indictment for the most serious offences under section 20 is an unlimited fine and-or up to ten years imprisonment. Subsection (2) provides for a minor offence that involves the use, or attempted use, of a passport not issued to a person to gain entry to licensed premises or a club. The maximum penalty is a fine not exceeding €500.

Section 21(d) is designed to prosecute serious offences relating to identity theft, regardless of whether it relates to travel abroad. As drafted, the legislation would, theoretically, permit the prosecution of a young person seeking to gain access to licensed premises or a night club by presenting a false passport. In theory this would permit the imposition, upon conviction, of an unlimited fine and up to ten years imprisonment.

Section 22 reflects the reality that a passport is increasingly regarded as the principal and most secure form of identification and proof of age. Notwithstanding the existence of a system of identity cards designed to provide evidence of age for access to pubs and clubs, most such premises will accept a passport as an alternative form of evidence of age and in many cases a passport is a requirement. It is inevitable that on occasion a young person may seek to use another person's passport, usually that of a relative or friend, to gain entry to a pub or club. While this is rightly defined as an offence under subsection (2) it is a lesser offence and the penalty is tailored accordingly.

However, interference with or the falsification of a passport is an activity that cannot be condoned and it is important that provision remains to prosecute such offences. There is a risk that the proposed amendment could give rise to a loophole allowing a person who falsified a passport to plead that it was done to gain entry to licensed premises or a club, thereby potentially rendering him or her not guilty of an offence. It is not the Government's intention that a person who commits such an offence solely to gain entry to a pub or club should face up to ten years imprisonment and an unlimited fine. I am confident that the Director of Public Prosecutions and the courts will take the circumstances and gravity of the offence into account in the normal way when deciding whether and on what basis to prosecute and, if a person is convicted, the penalty to be imposed.

I appreciate and agree with the intentions behind the amendment but I do not consider that it should be approved.

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