Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Ireland has not applied to participate in the Schengen arrangements to the extent that they deal with the abolition of border checks. This decision has been taken to maintain the common travel area with the United Kingdom which remains a priority for Ireland. The reality is that the common travel area could not continue to operate if Ireland were to remove border checks with Schengen states generally while the United Kingdom did not do so. To do so would result in a situation where the land border with Northern Ireland would become the border between the Schengen area and the United Kingdom. In such circumstances, land border controls would appear inevitable and this is obviously something that no Irish Government would seriously contemplate. The reality is that we cannot operate a common travel area with Britain and be part of the Schengen visa free zone at the same time.

The Government's focus instead is on doing what it can to maximise the potential of the common travel area as evidenced by the visa waiver programme for holders of certain categories of British visa, which this Government introduced in July 2011, and by ongoing talks with our British colleagues on the possibility of reciprocal CTA visa arrangements.

It must be first pointed out that the great majority of visitors to Ireland, over 98%, come from countries whose citizens are not visa-required, for example, Britain, the US and EU member states. Therefore, reforms of the visa regime can have only a limited effect on tourism and other visits. That being said, I have taken a number of steps to reform the visa system to facilitate business and tourist visitors from visa-required countries. The short-stay Irish visa waiver programme, launched by this Government on 1 July 2011, allows persons from 17 designated countries to travel to Ireland on the basis of a British visa. This programme has proved very effective in attracting increased numbers of visitors from emerging tourist markets.

The Government has also taken other steps to make the visa process easier including making greater use of multi-entry visas for regular tourist and business visitors from targeted markets, including China, the UAE and Russia. The Department has established six overseas offices in strategic hub locations to provide a better and more convenient service to visa applicants from the busiest locations. It is also in discussion with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on steps to make the issuing of visas through Irish missions overseas, under delegated sanction from my Department, more efficient.

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