Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)

The specific aspect of the Bill on which I want to focus is section 20, which concerns the amendment of section 4A of the Marine Institute Act 1991. It pertains to the Irish Maritime Development Office and shipping services. I will focus on the specific issue of border controls at harbours around the country, in respect of which I have serious concerns. I brought this issue to the attention of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform in the context of the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill. However, he seems to be washing his hands of the issue. Under the legislation on entry into this country, a number of ports are designated for the legal entry of persons, namely, those in Dublin, Dún Laoghaire, Galway, Greencastle, Moville, Rosslare and Waterford. Larne in Northern Ireland can also be used legally by people who want to enter this jurisdiction from across the Border.

I have great concerns over the checks in place at the legitimate ports of entry. I am concerned that some other ports in the country could be used for the illegal transfer of people into this jurisdiction. In the context of the legislation before us, it is vital that the issues of security and border control be taken into consideration while bearing in mind the provisions for the development of our existing ports and the improvement of services, not only in the ports that already take foot passengers but also ports that may be developed with this in mind. It is vital that the Irish Maritime Development Office, local authorities taking over some of the ports' roles and An Bord Pleanála give full consideration to this.

Let me highlight a number of problems with border controls at our harbours. It is of the utmost importance that someone take responsibility for this issue. It seems it is being ignored at present by the various agents of the Government. There is an onus on the Minister of State to make proper and adequate provision in this Bill for port authority police who could legally stop and detain an individual pending the arrival of a garda if they have suspicions regarding that individual's illegal entry into the country or that he or she may be wanted by the authorities in this country or his or her country of origin.

Our three semi-State airports, in Cork, Shannon and Dublin, have airport police but there are none in any of the other airports in the country. Police with similar powers to those in Cork, Shannon and Dublin need to be appointed to the port authorities around the country. For example, in the part of the country of the Minister of State, Deputy Kelleher, there was a case concerning an illegal immigrant and rapist who set up a restaurant in west Cork and travelled in and out of Ireland using a murderer's passport. Despite his using this passport, he was never stopped, even when the convicted murderer went on the run from British police. The individual was only caught after getting drunk and coming to the attention of the immigration officers in Fishguard. When he was questioned by the immigration officers in Fishguard he could not remember where he was staying in London, so they looked with greater attention at his passport and recognised that it was a false one. There are, I am sure, numerous other cases, which do not come to the attention of the public, of people using our ports because they are seen as a soft touch in terms of immigration checks.

In an constituency adjoining mine there was an individual who recently came before the courts and the judge, as is standard practice when dealing with a non-Irish citizen, asked him to surrender his passport. The person, who had come from continental Europe through Rosslare harbour, said he did not have a passport as he had not used one to enter the jurisdiction in the first place. As a result, he could not surrender his passport to the courts. Again, this highlights the fact that border controls at our harbours and ports need to be dramatically strengthened to ensure they are not being used as an easy option for entry into this country.

Many officials in the area of trafficking of human brings, who have done much work in this regard, will tell one that our ports - including the port of Larne, as a result of the Border with Northern Ireland - are seen as soft options for entering into this jurisdiction and thence to the UK. The Welsh Assembly published a report on the trafficking of women and children which indicated that Ireland was being used for trafficking human beings into Wales through Fishguard and other ports.

Not only do we need to strengthen the powers of those conducting checks at our ports, we also need greater co-ordination between An Garda Síochána and the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs. An article published in a Sunday newspaper on 3 February last year highlights the weaknesses within the existing system. A source at the Department of Justice and Law Reform stated that a Nigerian woman who had been recorded as having left the country in November 2002 had continued to claim social welfare benefits, to a total of €67,000, up to 2006. It defies logic that the Garda Síochána and the immigration system can identify someone as having left the country, yet they can continue to draw social welfare payments in this jurisdiction.

We have all come across cases of people who have applied for citizenship or long-term residency, one of the conditions for which is five years' continuous residence in this jurisdiction prior to the submission of their application, and after two or three years have received a letter back from the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform saying it had been noted they had gone on holidays for a fortnight during the five-year period and were thus 14 days short of the required five years, resulting in their application being rendered null and void and a requirement to submit a new application. I doubt there is a Member of the House who has not come across such a case. How in God's name can we have a system which can identify that someone has left the country for 14 days but not that someone from within the EU is flying back and forth and continuing to claim social welfare payments after having officially left the country? There is a crazy logic in our immigration system whereby we know to the exact minute when one set of nationals has left the country, but for another set of nationals, all outside the Schengen Agreement area, we do not seem to know when they are entering or leaving the country. I do not understand how this continues to happen, and our social welfare system is being exploited as a result.

It is vital that we have greater co-ordination between both agents of the State. The Department of Social Welfare is involved in meeting people once they come into the jurisdiction because they cannot function in this society without a PPS number. Surely there can be greater co-ordination, so that if the Garda happens not to identify a person at our ports or airports or a person comes across our unpoliced border with Northern Ireland, the social welfare system and the issuing of a PPS number will act as a safety net. There have been numerous instances in which the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs, even with its limited technology, has identified false documentation that has been presented for the issuing of PPS numbers. No one is going into the Department with false documentation looking for a PPS number unless he or she is trying to exploit the system in some way or conceal his or her true identity.

Given these loopholes, we are encouraging and promoting the trafficking of human beings into this country. We recently heard a report by the Immigrant Council of Ireland that it had identified 102 victims of trafficking in a 21-month period, 11 of whom were children, yet there have been no convictions in this jurisdiction for illegal trafficking of women and children. There is no doubt that our harbours and ports are being used as a soft touch for trafficking people into the country to work in a sex industry which is worth an estimated €180 million per year. It is frustrating to see the Garda being quoted as stating that mobile phones are the lifeblood of prostitution and that removing mobile phone numbers from the system could close down many of the brothels that are currently operating. If it is that easy to close down this massive industry which is exploiting women and children, surely we should be taking action. Why action has not been taken to date I cannot understand, because such activity is driving a coach and four through our border control system and making a joke of our immigration system at harbour and ports. Serious consideration must be given to this issue.

We have had numerous reports of individuals coming in through our harbours and ports because our immigration checks are scant in those areas. People with serious sexual convictions in other parts of Europe are coming here. A senior garda has been quoted as saying that many of them are free to work with children in this jurisdiction because of the difficulties with vetting. In 2007 the Garda vetting unit received 187,000 requests, in 15% of which the individuals involved were found to have convictions. We do not know how many of these are sexual convictions, but the EU has a responsibility to set up a Europe-wide database to allow us to identify people with serious convictions in these areas who should not be allowed next, nigh or near children. One of the crucial functions of the European Union should be to protect all of its citizens, yet it has failed to put such a system in place and ensure there is greater co-operation in the sharing of information. The difficulty is that, even were the database in place, the technology would not be available to our immigration service or to the Garda Síochána to allow for the identification of the individuals in question at ports and airports. Nor would it available to the Department of Social and Family Affairs, which might be able to identify the individuals when they seek to obtain PPS numbers.

I hope the Minister of State takes note of my points because this matter costs the taxpayer a significant amount of money in terms of the deportation of those who have entered the country illegally and what it is doing to fuel Ireland's significant sex industry. According to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform's figures on the new Thornton Hall prison, we will spend €6 million per year to provide accommodation for those who are to be deported.

I wish to raise two final points. Given the first point, I am glad that my constituency colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Finneran, is present. An issue close to his heart is that of aliens in our waterways. Recently, the bloody red shrimp has invaded the Shannon waterway. It seems to have spread through Lough Ree and Lough Derg. This issue is not only being ignored in our jurisdiction, but internationally. It must be addressed. Everyone knows about the considerable problems caused in the Shannon waterway by the zebra mussel, including water intake costs and damaged boats. There is a concern that the shrimp will have a major impact on the survival of juvenile coarse fish such as bream, perch and roach, as they compete for the same food source within the Shannon waterway.

More must be done internationally to ensure we have a tight agreement on the use and management of ballast water and that technologies are put onshore in our harbours to treat ballast water via chemicals, filtration or so on, thereby ensuring that we do not transport alien species from one part of the world to another. They pose a major bio-pollution problem. Ships transporting goods around the world are using ballast water, much of which is taken on board in one harbour and pumped out when the next port of call is reached. Under some international agreements, ballast water should be taken in only when ships are on the open sea. If it is harbour-sourced, it should be pumped out on the open sea and sea water pumped in. In these ways, there would be less chance of organisms either entering ballast water or, if they manage that, surviving the pumping out process to reach other ports. Ballast water has been used as a vehicle to transport the zebra mussel to Ireland and might have been used by the bloody red shrimp.

The cleaning of boats and the selling of pond plants in shops and gardening outlets should be regulated.

My final point is on Foynes Port. It could develop as a major international port had it pre-clearance from US customs, similar to the significant proposal in respect of Shannon Airport, which can put the airport back on the map. The harbour at Foynes is one of the finest in western Europe and I urge the Ministers and the Taoiseach to take this issue up with their US counterparts to try to reach an agreement on pre-clearance. Doing so might not only lead to the development of the Shannon Estuary, but of freight business on the western rail corridor and other rail corridors.

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