Derek McDowell (Labour)

The Minister is saying that the people responsible for checking passports in Dublin Airport are not those who will be held liable, but the airline that owns the plane being boarded. I came back from Roscoff during the summer. There is a hut at the entrance to the port where passports are checked, or not, as happened to me. I presume the French immigration service or the police operate that service. If I was with Brittany Ferries, it would be reasonable for me to rely on these guys to check passports and documentation – that is their job. The Minister is saying that if they do not do that properly, Brittany Ferries is still responsible. That places unreasonable liability on the carrier. Immigration is for states to organise through their police forces or immigration services. If they do not do their job properly, to place a secondary or primary liability on transport companies is entirely unreasonable. The Minister will put in place two checks – the State will check at one hut and then the transport operator will have a responsibility to check it further along. That is unreasonable.