Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

I agree with the Deputy that it is outrageous that fake Irish passports were used in this murder. In six of the eight cases, they used real passport numbers that corresponded with the numbers on passports in Ireland and, therefore, the security of the citizens concerned was at risk. When I met Foreign Minister Mr. Lieberman, we made it clear how seriously we took the issue and how unacceptable such behaviour was. He said simply he did not have information relating to this.

The British Foreign Minister, Mr. David Miliband, spoke to me at the Foreign Affairs Council meeting, which was a day in advance of the statement by SOCA, and he indicated what the outcome of that would be in terms of "compelling circumstantial evidence". We are aware of the circumstantial evidence generally regarding this event and alleged Israeli involvement. We raised that issue with Foreign Minister Mr. Lieberman and again he said he had no information on that.

The difference between the British case and our case is that in the British case the fraudulent passports appear to have been cloned from those issued to British citizens with strong links to Israel and, in some cases, they live in Israel. In our case six of the passports were fakes using existing passport numbers while two did not carry valid numbers. Unlike the British, therefore, we do not have an immediate line of inquiry. The investigation by the Garda and the Department is not complete. There is circumstantial evidence but given the seriousness of this situation and the grave consequences involved, we want to conclude our investigation before taking this further.

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