Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I must admit to some surprise that those amendments have been tabled. Section 2(1)(c) places a requirement on a carrier to ensure that a non-national has the proper documentation – a valid passport or other valid document which establishes his or her nationality and identity and, if required, a valid visa or transit visa. All that is required of a carrier is that he or she carries out the rudimentary task of checking the passenger's documents to ensure they are in order. Nothing more is necessary. Carriers' staff will be helped, as some already are, by training and advice from immigration officers to enable them to spot the more obvious forgeries and falsifications. Basically, however, it is a fairly mechanical task. If an intending passenger presents with insufficient documentation at a port of embarkation for Ireland, it is no different to turning up with insufficient money for the fare. All the carrier has to do is tell the intending passenger he or she cannot travel on that day.

If amendment No. 7 was accepted, further responsibilities would be thrust on the carrier to make more personal inquiries of the intending passenger by asking questions such as: "Do you intend to seek asylum in Ireland?" How could we possibly have that? What is the position of Labour Party Senators in relation to the Dublin Convention? In the vast majority of cases, flights and shipping services bringing passengers to Ireland are originating from Dublin Convention countries. Are we to say that anybody who forgets his or her passport may insist on boarding on the pretext of being an asylum seeker? That would be wide open to abuse. Let us be more realistic in this regard. If we are imposing carrier's liability, we cannot expect every check-in desk to become a mini-tribunal, asking passengers their reasons for travelling to Ireland and trying to establish whether they are genuine asylum seekers. We cannot have a situation where a person without any documents whatsoever can evade the requirement to produce documentation to gain admittance to Ireland by simply stating to a Servisair employee at Charlerois Airport, or wherever, that he or she intends to claim asylum in Ireland. We must live in the real world. How could we possibly legislate on the basis that a person without a visa for entry to Ireland can board a flight to this country by simply saying the magic words, "I intend to claim asylum in Ireland"?

I appeal to the Members of this House to be realistic in this matter. If that were to be the law, we may as well throw out the Bill in its entirety. Nobody in his or her right mind would bother to produce a passport if he or she could simply engage in the verbal formula of saying he or she is considering making an asylum application on arrival in Dublin. There is no substance to that proposition.