Derek McDowell (Labour)

Indeed we are and I will address that in a moment. However, I want to respond briefly to what the Minister has said. Surely, this Bill is about finding a balance as to who operates the immigration service, the carrier or the immigration service proper. Immigration officers here have a great deal of powers. As Revenue officers, they are vested with quasi-judicial powers, certainly investigative powers and powers of search which are serious. These powers are given to them by the State under statute and it is right and fair that they should be. What the Minister appears to suggest is that rather than give the immigration service the primary responsibility for enforcing the immigration laws of the State it should be transferred to Ryanair or Aer Lingus. It is not unreasonable to impose some obligation on carriers, whether ferry owners, ship-owners or airlines, to ensure compliance with the immigration laws, but the Minister is transferring the entire onus to them and suggesting it is in some way unreasonable for us to criticise that fact. That is not an unreasonable stance to adopt and we will continue to do so for the rest of the evening and beyond. That the Minister should determine that argument as specious is strikingly wide of the mark.

In regard to the amendment, the Minister and I have never managed to get through these issues easily. The specific point raised by Senator Ryan was that carriers are already obliged to treat non-nationals in a different fashion from the way they treat nationals. He has correctly described the position as to why that should be the case. It strikes me that that causes practical difficulties in terms of how it is done on board ship and whether it requires checks to be made before disembarkation. If the Minister is giving an assurance that he would consider such a check would be unreasonable or unnecessary in order to comply with the Act, I will accept that.