Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

There will be quite an amount of interaction between stakeholders and so on. A consultative group will be in place shortly after this is implemented and, as I said, reviews will be carried out as required. There are different and important stakeholders involved in this. Passengers will want a pleasant experience when they are travelling to the United States. The airport authorities will want to ensure the facilities work and operate smoothly for their customers. The airlines will certainly not want any disruption or unnecessary delays to their schedules.

The US will want a system that works well, efficiently and effectively. Its main concern in all of this, as the Deputy correctly pointed out, is the security of the US. I am satisfied, having spoken to the US Secretary for Homeland Security and her predecessor, that she is committed to ensuring this system works well. The US authorities will watch the workings of the preclearance facilities closely and will want it to work well from both a security and customer point of view. If it were not to work for one party, it can choose to withdraw from it but then it becomes less effective. It is in everyone's interest to ensure it works well.

Regarding the question on personal information, all information submitted will be held by the United States authorities as currently applies. We would not have access to that information. Between police forces, for example, provisions exist for the sharing of information. However, data protection measures both in the US and Ireland would prevent too much personal information being provided.

General statistics on passengers, such as numbers travelling, would be available to us but I am not sure more detailed statistics on age, sex and so on would be. I will check on it for the Deputy and get back to him on it.

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