Once the possibilities of the sweeping powers became known, it did not take long for the practice of handing out passports to foreigners to become another shot in the locker of a Government that wanted to please its friends. Such was the public disquiet over the scheme that it was decided, a bit late in the day, to lay down rules to govern it. Once again, the rules were not statutory because it was not necessary to make them so. The presence of the non-statutory rules did not mean that they were followed or policed in any meaningful way. It took until 1998 – just five years ago – before the then Government, responding to widespread pressure, finally put an end to the scheme. By then, it had become abundantly clear that the scheme had done more damage to the reputation of Ireland than it had done good.