Dáil debates

Thursday, 30 April 2009

5:00 pm

Photo of Dick RocheDick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

I am pleased Deputy Flanagan raised this issue. However, I am not very pleased at the manner in which he characterises Irish passports because it does damage to all of us.

The fact that he has raised the issue gives me the opportunity, on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Micheál Martin, to provide the House with a full briefing and to demonstrate that nothing untoward happened in this case and that the law of the land was observed.

The person in question applied for a passport in the Irish form of his name on 12 January 2009. He submitted his previous passport in the English form of his name along with the necessary application. The application was correctly completed and witnessed in a Garda station.

It has been established by the courts that a person has a constitutional right to travel from this country. Article 41.3 of the Constitution specifically infers that. A person, therefore, has the right to a passport. This is, of course, not an unfettered right and a passport can be refused in certain very limited circumstances.

Section 12(1)(d) of the Passports Act 2008 requires the Minister to refuse to issue a passport where he or she has been notified by the Courts Service that a person is subject to a bail order. However, there was no notification concerning a bail order in this case and no such order was applicable at the time of the 2009 application. The question of previous criminal convictions had arisen in respect of previous passport applications by the person in question and these issues were resolved at the time of those applications.

Accordingly, having verified the applicant's identity and citizenship, having established that the application was correctly completed and appropriately witnessed and having verified that there was no record of a bail order in respect of the person in question, the Passport Office established that the gentleman was entitled to be issued with a passport.

I would like now to turn to the issue of a person's request for a passport to be issued in the Irish language form of his name. Before dealing with the specific request, it might be helpful if I were to outline the legislative position in this regard. Incidentally, proficiency in the Irish language is not a requirement, a fact which I suggest Deputy Flanagan is fully aware of, having read the Act.

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